Beyond the Pale
by Araceil
Summary: Fourth year. Living with the Dursleys taught Harry three all important rules. These rules cause an emotionally repressed 11 year old to attend Hogwarts and discover his so called dead family aren't as dead as he believed.
1. First Year

**Beyond the Pale**

-

**Growing up with the Dursleys taught Harry three golden rules, rules that made him the emotionless, tightly controlled and restrained eleven year old he was when attending Hogwarts. Only to discover his so called dead family aren't as dead as he was led to believe, only to discover he had been cast aside for his favoured elder brother. Really, he wasn't surprised.**

-

_I do not own Harry Potter. Megan Jones is a Canon Character sorted into Hufflepuff, please check the HP Lexicon regarding House placements._

-

**First Year: **Chase the Dawn

-

People whispered as he passed by. They skirted away from the boy with the blank face and the black eyes. They didn't look and pretended not to notice.

**Rule Number One:** _Emotions were Dangerous_.

Harry James Potter, aged ten, had been living with his Aunt and Uncle since he was fifteen months old and his parents died in an accident, leaving him – rather negligently at that – on the doorstep of his Aunt's porch where he was promptly pushed into the cupboard under the stairs and forgotten about as much as possible. Until they had a use for him.

**Rule Number Two:** _Never give them the Satisfaction_.

Living with the Dursleys was hard, he was one of three things at any given time and always, always Unwelcome. Invisible, Slave or Target. He was all three, rolled into one. And no one cared. Oh they knew, everyone knew about the waif child with the baggy ragged clothes, the pale skin, the skinny body and painful bloated belly, the bruised skin and blood spotted trousers. They knew, they saw, they turned away and pretended not to.

**Rule Number Three: **_Everyone cares only for Themselves_.

No one cared. And eventually...... neither did Harry.

There was no significant event, no truly horrific trigger. He was not raped, he was rarely ever stuck by his Aunt or Uncle, just cold eyes, sharp words, starvation and silence. His cousin was the only one to hit him, corner him and beat him until he found breathing and moving difficult, until the larger blond child got bored or tired and left.

It was as if... he withered.

Too little love, too little warmth, everything that could be called emotion in the child was locked away, hidden deep within and repressed out of sight where no one could find it. He built walls, shells, shields of ice and fire and stone and steel, of barbed wire and molten iron, of pain, of silence, of _nothing_.

Harry Potter became nothing more than a doll, a delicate porcelain doll with a tiny treasure hidden deep within, a deceptively fragile figurine with a core of tempered steel. Nothing surprised him, nothing pained him, his face never changed and his eyes were dull and flat, he rarely spoke and when he did it was with such soft hoarse tones that one had to strain to hear the rusty words through the air.

So when a letter addressed to him showed up amidst the morning mail, he merely turned it backwards and left it on the table beside the door to pick up later. No one ever looked at things in plain sight and that was where Vernon kept the bills he didn't want to look at, just to make sure it wasn't opened until Harry himself wished to read it, he shifted some of the other bills on top of it before moving back into the kitchen and handing out the mail as usual. Ignoring the sharp poke from Dudley's Smeltings stick.

Twenty minutes later, Harry was back in his cupboard with his letter and cracking the Seal.

Not even a flick of his eyes betrayed his feelings as he read through the letter, a prank, nothing more. He shredded it and dropped it into one of his shoeboxes. Prank or not, it was the only letter he had ever had, that was worth something he decided, he would keep hold of it despite it's worthlessness.

Time to go and mow the lawn.

-

Wizards, Harry decided, were so completely hopeless that half of them couldn't find their own buttocks with both hands, GPS tracking, a compass and someone writing down instructions for them to read while the rest of them were nuttier than a tree full of squirrels preparing for Winter. In short. They were a bunch of brainless lunatics without a single drop of common sense between the whole collective.

"Does every eleven year old receive a potential weapon upon entry to the Wizarding world?" he asked softly, testing the weight and feel of the Elm and Phoenix feather wand that had just accepted him.

The look on Mr Snape and Mr Ollivander's faces told him, quite plainly, that they had never thought of it in such a fashion and now that they had, they too found themselves in something of a shock.

Harry merely tilted his head and returned to flicking his wand, watching the soft white and pale blue sparks flicker through the small dank store like snowflakes.

-

Vernon hit him.

It was only the once.

Harry got to his feet again, he straightened himself and lifted his head, staring directly into his Guardian's eyes, flatly, not a twitch to give away his feelings.

He said nothing.

Vernon was pale, sweating slightly. He looked scared and then suddenly, ashamed.

Why? Harry refrained from moving.

The older man gripped his chin and pried his mouth open, checking to make sure he hadn't busted a tooth before releasing him, ordering him to go into the kitchen and put the bag of frozen peas on his cheek.

Harry did as he was told.

-

"Hi, I'm Megan, can I sit with you?" the other girl asked, looking at him with hopeful blue eyes.

Harry nodded.

The two of them sat in silence for a while, Megan swinging her legs on the chair while Harry read his Potions book, she smiled at him toothily and he found himself twitching an eyebrow in askance.

"You're not one for words, are you?" she asked before giggling slightly, "Will you at least tell me your name?"

He thought about it for a moment before deciding that he would rather be called by name than by Boy or Freak, "Harry," he replied, Megan smiled, appeased.

"Nice to meet you Harry," she stated, "Up there is my cat Jasper. What's your owl called?"

Truth be told, Harry didn't know why he had the bird, Mr Snape had simply pointed him towards the Owl Emporium and ordered him to get something, Harry had not argued and simply fetched himself a bird. The Snowy Owl was friendly toward him, a simple creature with an oddly mothering nature.

"Hedwig," he replied flatly, a name taken from a Witch in one of his History Books. The owl hooted cheerfully, almost as though greeting the other girl who gave her an equally cheery wave.

Megan was a tall girl, gangly with skinned knees and a frayed tartan blue skirt and black zip up hoodie over a white T-shirt, the elastic of her socks was old and loose, making her white knee-high socks pool at her ankles and grubby off white sneakers. She had a cheerful face with dimpled cheeks and round blue eyes, her brownish red hair was pulled back into a ponytail and there was an interesting scar just peeking out of her hairline.

The rest of the journey was done in companionable silence.

-

"Jones, Megan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!!"

Harry clapped for the girl as she tottered off, a little pink faced, to the house of yellow and black. The House of the Loyal and Hard Working, he had not spoken with her much but what he had noted from her seemed to suggest it, at least she was tactful and friendly, she asked for nothing and expected nothing, he liked that at least.

Several other names were called and then his, the reaction however, was not one he was expecting.

"_did she say Potter?_"

"_Charlus has a younger brother?_"

"_The Boy-Who-Lived has a younger brother?_"

"_Is she having us on?_"

"_Did you know the Potters had another kid?_"

"_Must be Muggleborn._"

One eyebrow almost imperceptibly quirked upward, Harry stalked from the crowd of preteens and into the light, ignoring the surprised intakes of breath from the assembled student body and the spluttered squeak from the house of Lions. He ignored the attention and sat upon the stool, not even looking at the stern faced witch – Professior McGonagall – who seemed so surprised to see him as she dropped the hat upon his head.

'_Impressive mental shields, Mr Potter_,' the voice tickled within his mind, Harry didn't react, '_Oh yes, very interesting, much more complex than those of your year mates and I should think much more up to the task than the pitiful curtains your brother had hiding his_,' so he did have a brother, interesting, why was he not at the Dursleys? This required investigation, '_A Thirst for knowledge, or just a defence mechanism? Oh my yes, your mind is quite the complex and near enough unreadable thing. But we shall find a home for you yet my boy_,' mmm, pigeon holing students at eleven, a rather damning psychological profiling ritual that enforced black and white ideals upon the young while they were still malleable. How depressingly Nazi. '_..... Restrained, disciplined, an observer more than a doer, you know the risks and you calculate your way around them, or deal with them as you come to them. Cold and contained, you trust no one but yourself and believe that everyone else is the same. My dear child, it may not be the best fit, but it is possibly the only one,_

"RAVENCLAW!!"

-

Michael Corner, Terry Boot, Stephen Cornfoot, Kevin Entwhistle and Anthony Goldstein.

His new dormmates.

Insufferably nosy dormmates who had yet to learn the meaning of peace and quiet and _privacy_.

Corner was the worst. Constantly hounding him about his family, whether or not he was related to the Potters, The Potters, the family the Boy Who Lived was born into.

Harry gave him a flat look, just stared at him, for such a long time that the stubborn boy got uncomfortable and fidgeted and then finally shouted at him. Harry turned away and ignored him from then on.

Terry Boot seemed to be the only one out of all of them that understood what that little brush off meant.

Harry didn't _know_.

-

Megan sat beside him at breakfast the next morning, chipper as always she told him all about her dorm and house and her dormmates, pointing them out happily as she consumed a small stack of pancakes with maple syrup and butter.

Harry listened silently and chewed his toast as she relayed the epic tale of Jasper's battle with a Prefect's Kneazle.

Neither of them noticed, or cared, about the shocked or judgemental eyes of the other students.

-

Charlus Potter cornered him at lunch the next day.

He was a Second Year, broad shouldered, average height, black hair and brown eyes, his face was slathered with freckles and he sported a light tan. There was an ugly scar running from one side of his forehead, across his third eye and stopping just before hitting his left eye, he had been lucky, a centimetre lower and he would have been blind.

Any other first year would have probably been intimidated by the way the taller boy was looming over them, Harry merely stared straight up at him.

"Can I help you with something?" he asked flatly.

Charlus seemed perturbed for a moment before frowning and tilting his head, "You have mum's eyes," he finally said.

Harry stared at him.

The bell resounded through the halls and Charlus shot him one last look of bewildered betrayal before turning and charging up the chairs toward the Charms corridor. Harry followed at a more sedentary pace and turned off into the Transfiguration corridor.

McGonagall gave him an equally bewildered look, though a much more subtle one, when he managed to turn the matchstick into a needle upon his first try.

-

Snape had, at first, been vulgar toward Harry upon picking him up from the Dursleys.

His behaviour calmed, tempered and became so confusingly neutral over the course of the shopping trip that Harry was entirely unsure of what to expect when he stepped into the Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff Potions class.

He took his seat beside Megan who was fast becoming the only person he would have called a friend – even if he did hold her at a rather chilly arms length, she didn't hold it against him.

The lesson passed without any drama.

-

He was called to Dumbledore's office that evening.

-

Charlus was right.

She did have his eyes.

His face as well.

But James Potter had his hair.

Harry stared at his so called parents with every scrap of apathy he could muster.

Inside, he was raging.

His thoughts roared through his head with such speed and force that he couldn't even think them before they were snatched away in the turbulence. But one word escaped him, one word that the child who had curled up rubbing his aching swollen stomach in a cupboard under the stairs, who never knew the warmth of a hug or the knowledge that he was loved. The hurt and frightened child that he had hidden deep within, locked away beyond the light of day, beyond even his acknowledgement. Where now it roared to the surface and uttered one single word, the hardest word to every face any parent.

"Why?"

-

The phoenix was crying.

It wouldn't stop.

It kept singing and crying and nuzzling his cheek, trying to move him, nothing, his emotions had been locked down again, hidden tightly. His heart, if it could be called such any more, was broken, shattered, burned and scarred.

The adults in the room were horrified.

They had never seen such a reaction in the Phoenix before, and the fact that the child's face had not shifted even in the _slightest_. Nothing.

"I see," Harry stated flatly over the top of the Phoenix's trilling. "Will I be leaving the Dursley family and joining you, or remaining with them?" he asked simply.

Dumbledore tried to smile at him, he did, but Fawkes's behaviour made something cold and heavy settle in the back of his throat, something heavy and painful and sick in his stomach. "The Bloodwards around the Dursley family are there for their protection as well as your own. We feel it would be safer for the both of you to remain with them while Charlus continues to receive specialised training from his parents," he explained gravely, he didn't sugar coat it, he knew the boy would see straight through it, the Hat had given him three terse words in regards to the boy when questioned about him. '_Tell the Truth_'.

"Will you be severing all contact again?" no accusation, no recrimination, no anger, no fear, no acceptance, just a question, flat and unyielding. Uncaring as to whether the answer was yes or no.

"No!" Lily exclaimed, scandalously, how could he even think that sh-... the thought died before it was even fully formed, what was he supposed to think? They let him believe they were dead, they never contacted him, never sent a birthday card or present, they just... abandoned him.

Harry nodded, "Is that all, or may I return to my dormitory now, sir?"

Dumbledore nodded, "You may go, Harry," he assured the child.

Never realising that the events taken place in that office would lose him the boy forever.

-

If there was one thing Harry knew how to handle, it was bullies.

Bullies he didn't have to live with.

So when Draco Malfoy started jeering at him, insulting him, reminding him that his family abandoned him, he just stared at the boy. Flatly and coldly, he said nothing, just stood there, staring as the blond continued to try and goad him. Listening as his insults, his words, became more and more scathing and vulgar, as the crowd around them grew larger and more horrified at his taunts.

Then Harry spoke when he had deemed enough people gathered.

"Your point being?" he asked flatly, silencing the young Malfoy heir instantly, along with all the whispering and muttering amidst the crowd.

"T-they _abandoned you!!_" he roared, looking almost comical as his face lit up bright pink.

"You mistake me for someone who cares," Harry informed him before turning and walking toward the Great Hall.

Utter – silence.

-

Flying...

It was an addiction.

The freedom, the exhilaration. It felt as though the whole world fell away.

When Flitwick pulled him down and marched him to this Davies fellow, Harry turned them down _**flat**_.

He had no interest in this Quidditch. He simply enjoyed flying for flying's sake and had no need for sports or recognition or respect within his House.

Davies looked horrified and Flitwick merely studied him before smiling sadly and dismissing him. The eleven year old walked away without a backwards glance, ignoring the expression of surprise on Charlus's face as he stood outside the classroom listening in.

-

The month passed quietly, Harry and Megan were eventually joined by a rather lonely girl in Gryffindor, Hermione Granger, that Megan befriended during one of their afternoons in the library. The small group of three must have garnered a few odd looks, all of them being from different houses, but both Hermione and Megan swiftly became as thick as thieves and took it in turns prodding Harry into discussion and life though they had yet to get him to show any more expression than a mild tilt of his eyebrow.

Still, they had fun trying to ruffle his feathers and for the first time ever, Harry actually had fun retaining his emotional control.

-

A troll had managed to get into the castle.

Hermione looked a little green while Megan was excited, her red-brown hair almost bristling along with the rest of her body, she looked like she wanted to go and challenge it to an arm wrestling contest. Harry merely finished his roast pork before Professor Flitwick came to escort them back to Ravenclaw Tower – he allowed Megan and Hermione to stay with them until one of the other teachers could some and pick them up and take them back to their own dorms when the Troll had been taken care of.

They found it in the girl's bathroom drinking from a toilet.

-

Gryffindor lost a buttload of points, apparently Charlus and a pair of boys in their year, Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom were caught after curfew, fifty points docked each. The only bright side to that was that Draco Malfoy had been caught with them and had about 75 points docked for not only being up after curfew but for also lying about the three of them smuggling a Dragon through the castle.

What a load of tosh.

-

Christmas came and went. A few presents, nothing from the Dursleys, Hermione got him sweets, Megan a model butterfly she'd made herself out of silk, glue, paint and wires, it was very delicate and Harry had been oddly careful when he placed it into his History text for safe keeping.

His parents though... from James came a top of the line Nimbus 2000 along with a note telling him to keep it hidden as first years weren't allowed to have brooms, and from his mother came a charmed necklace, apparently it would tell her about his health and mental state, even allowing her to track him or Portkey him away to a safe location if he was in danger.

Both were placed into the bottom of his trunk never to be used.

-

Exams were easy, simple even.

Hermione moaned afterwards, panicking somewhat about her results, scared that she had done poorly or hadn't written enough on certain questions.

Megan laughed at her and told her she would make herself sick if she carried on like that, promptly followed by tackling the bushy haired witch into a wall and tickling her until the Muggleborn girl was begging her to stop or she would wet herself.

"What have we learned?" Megan then asked in a sing songy voice, wiggling her fingers at Hermione who took shelter behind the seemingly amused Harry.

"That Megan should not be allowed within arms reach of innocent students," Harry offered flatly, causing both girls to fly into giggle fits as they pushed him playfully.

-

Gryffindor won the House Cup.

Unsurprising.

The points system was about as fair as the social ladder in Japan.

-

Sitting in their Train compartment, the three preteens languished in comfortable silence .

Jasper purring happily in Harry's lap while Hedwig dosed in her cage.

"Say, did you find out what the deal between you and the Potters were?" Megan suddenly asked, it had gone clean out of her mind for the whole year, she only remembered now because she was worrying where her friend would be going.

"Yes," the only boy supplied, "I will be remaining with my Guardians."

"Your Aunt and Uncle?" Hermione asked. She had wondered for a while why Harry never used the term, never gave them any more of a connection than just people he lived with and were legally obliged to care for him. To her, who knew how much weight and thought Harry put into his words before speaking... it meant a lot.

There was a momentary pause, as always when speaking of them, before Harry nodded just the once.

Nothing was said as both Hermione and Megan wrote down their phone numbers and handed them over, nor when Harry, in a fit of rare trust, did the same.

The girls were smart, even if he didn't say anything, his silence told them enough.

-

**Year One finished.**

**8)**

**I decided to try a different Harry for once. He's either maniacal or angsty in my work, I wanted to try a completely apathetic Harry. Sometimes, complete apathy is so much more disturbing than licking a blade and grinning psychotically at someone. As for Fawkes crying on him, to Fawkes, he needs healing, badly. Psychologically, Harry is broken, he is scarred and broken and Fawkes wants so very badly to heal him, sooth him, comfort him, but he can't because Harry has locked himself too far away.**

**A kind of self-taught defensive Occlumency. **

**Probably won't continue this. It was just a spot of fun at about... (looks at clock) midnight. Might revisit it later, might not.**

Araceil.


	2. Second Year

**Beyond the Pale**

**Year Two**

**WARNING** Dodgy scenes of Child Abuse – the sexual kind.

-

Summer had been slow so far, the Dursleys had given him more than a few chores to do – chores which had been neglected in his time at Hogwarts as he was actually the only on in the house who knew how to do them properly, a lifetime of experience to get it just _right_, just the way the Dursleys liked it. And there was no way Petunia was going to allow her precious son to go out into the blistering hot sun to do them when he was finally back from Smeltings.

In a rare fit of spite, Harry had watered down all of Dudley's fizzy drinks. Meg was rubbing off on him.

When he wasn't getting sunburn, he was relegated to Dudley's second bedroom – though it was supposed to be his, Harry knew the cupboard would always be _his_ space, _his_ room and oddly enough... he kind of missed it – where he could do nothing more than think or putter around.

He read almost all of the muggle books in the room, his Aunt and Uncle at one point had desperately hoped their precious Diddidums had been a child genius so they'd bought a large number of books for him to read, books from pre-school through to GCSE Secondary School level and a few beyond, such as Business Studies, Law and for some odd reason Travel and Tourism. Dudley never used the books, they only served to become a make-shift TV stand on his table so they got relegated to the spare room, along with said TV when Dudley put his foot through it.

He also spent a lot of time thinking.

About why his parents had left him here.

He hadn't completely understood their thinking on the whole matter, it seemed to be running off a lot of raw emotion when they made the decision. Most importantly, according to them, it was for the safety of the whole family. All of them, especially Harry's.

A loud screech downstairs had green eyes sliding away from his Chemistry book to dispassionately gaze at the door, he could hear every word, every vulgarity – which was interesting because he was learning new words and the differences between Muggle and Magical swearing, so far he found Muggle to be more fitting – and explanations for just why things were the way they were.

Lily and James had come over to see how he was.

He had told them everything, he hadn't even bothered to listen to Vernon's growled orders to lie to them. He had seen the way the smiles had faded from their faces, how their faces drained of colour and how James's hair seemed to bristle like an enraged cat while Lily's eyes grew wide and her mouth opened slightly. So... they hadn't known about his mistreatment.

Lily was screaming, her voice was hoarse and on the verge of tears.

When Charlus had been born, the Potters had been ushered into a Safehouse, they hadn't explained why. A year later, Harry had been born and the small family had been happy. Apparently, he and Charlus were practically inseparable, rather more like twins than just older brother and younger brother. But on Halloween, Lily and James had been called away to an emergency Order Meeting, they had left Harry's godfather Sirius in charge – that night Voldemort attacked, Sirius was killed and Charlus had been struck in the forehead with a Killing Curse while Harry had been buried under falling debries. When they had returned they were beside themselves, having dug the pair of them out of the rubble they had fallen into a panic, sent the Aurors out after Pettigrew, their Secret Keeper, he escaped though and left a very real and frightening threat in the minds of Lily and James.

They decided to flee the Country and go on the run from the Death Eaters.

The only problem with that was that Harry was just _too little _to go with them, to young, too vulnerable, the Death Eaters weren't after him, Lily doubted they even knew about him because her pregnancy with him had been kept completely secret, only the Marauders and Dumbledore actually knew she had given birth a second time – incidentally he was premature on July 31st while Charlus had been born late on August 1st. They left him with the Dursleys, that way he would be protected with the Protection Charms, with Lily's blood in Petunia's veins, but it would also protect the Dursleys from the Death Eaters as well, and give Harry a chance at a normal and healthy up bringing where he wouldn't be living in fear every day, wouldn't be watching his brother with dread and maybe even later anger and hatred that they were in this position.

Apparently they hadn't completely abandoned him as he had been left to believe either, a Trust Fund, the very fund he received his stripend for school from had been set up to support him while living with the Dursleys. A Standing Order would transfer £200 a week into the Dursley Bank Account to care for him, of course that money went entirely towards Dudley and Harry saw perhaps about £20 of it a month maybe.

Harry returned his attention to his book, wondering if any of these techniques and applications could be put towards Potion Making, it certainly sounded like it could, he would have to approach Professor Snape with the book and see what he could make of it.

It was a shame really, if Harry actually cared about what was going on downstairs, he probably would have been happy, relieved even, that someone _did_ love him. Love him enough to do something so incredibly damn stupid as to trust a woman like Petunia.

He guessed that being in the Wizarding World killed one's Common Sense the more deeply they became involved.

-

The Dursleys reputation around Privet Drive was in ruins.

Mrs Witherspoon from number 2 had heard everything from the argument last night.

About the attempted murder on the Potters, to how they left their son with the Dursleys in the hope that Petunia would take care of him while they drew the would-be murderers to another country, how they sent quite a lot of money every week to care for their son but the Dursleys spent it all on themselves and left the little lamb with cast-offs. How they lied about the poor child's parents being dead, about how they were lay about drunks when it sounded as though they actually made _a lot_ of money. Just seeing their clothing as they left the property reinforced that opinion on Mrs Witherspoon, they were a beautiful couple, you could see that in their son who watched them go from the garden with impassive cold green eyes.

That was when the people of Privet Drive took the blinkers off, they saw and they remembered what they had brushed off as either none of their business or deserved cruelty to stave off a future Dole Sponge(1).

Vernon and Petunia were facing questioning from Social Services.

Grunnings were examining Vernon's employment contract on the results of what Social Services dug up.

Petunia was being shunned by the neighbourhood ladies.

Dudley's friends were avoiding him – in fact, they were the ones who were egging the house.

And all the while, Harry sat in his room and watched the chaos happening around him with flat impassive apathy, if the Dursleys were found guilty of Neglect, Mental, Verbal and Emotional Abuse along with Embezzlement, Fraud and a few other things then Harry would have to go back and live with the Potters.

Soon the day to return to Hogwarts came and Harry found himself looking into the faces of Lily and James, they had come to pick him up and bring him to the station with them.

"Got your stuff?" James asked brightly.

Harry looked at him, "No, it's still locked under the stairs," he stated matter of factly, on day one Vernon had grabbed everything and locked it away, Harry hadn't even fought him on it, he would just do his homework on the train to school, Hermione would help him out if he had any problems. She was a good.... friend he guessed.

James twitched ever so slightly and his smile became incredibly forced as he patted Harry on the head, "Well that won't do, let's get it out from under there before we miss the train," he declared whipping out a length of Mahogany wood from his hip, a wand, and flicking it at the cupboard. The padlock clicking open and falling away easily enough.

Removing the trunk from the cupboard, James levitated it out of the house and into the back of his car, it was nice and dark red with gold trimmings, typically Gryffindor colouring. Picking up Hedwig's cage, Harry stroked what few feathers were within reach and followed him out into the car where Lily and Charlus were waiting.

"How was your summer?" Charlus asked weakly, trying to smile at him.

"Fine," Harry admitted calmly, setting Hedwig in his lap, the sleeping white owl making a muffled coo as she settled. Harry paused, he supposed he should make some kind of attempt at conversation, Hermione was always pushing him to try and keep things going by prompting people with questions. "How... how was yours?" he asked, frowning slightly, had he asked the right thing?

Judging from the smiles he could see on Lily and James's faces he guessed he had.

Charlus was grinning, a little more relaxed now, as he explained how they had gone back to the states where Charlus met up with a few of his old friends in Ipswich, they had a pick-me up game of Quidditch which all the Yanks really sucked at, they played something called Quadpot over there which was – Harry tuned him out. He had no interest in sports.

The Journey to Hogwarts passed in relaxation with Charlus chattering at Harry who was ignoring him, Lily and James couldn't help but smile slightly, sad and a little bitter that they had missed out on this, wondering if there was a way to go back and change things, take Harry with them instead of leaving him with Petunia and her petty jealousy and bitter hatred. Lily hated herself for foolishly thinking that blood was more important than hatred, that her sister was _better_ than that, she had been such an idiot.

When they reached the Train Station, the two brothers were swept into Platform nine and three-quarters where Charlus got mobbed by the Weasley boy in Harry's year, Romulous? Regulus? Robert? Billius? Arnold? Regan? Raul? R-something or other and a girl who had to be a first year.

Hermione was over beside her parents, Harry moved to go and join her by James's hand suddenly landing on his shoulder prevented him from escape as he found himself being turned around to face the veritable army of red heads in front of him.

"Arthur, hello, how are you?" James called joivally to a tall, thin, balding man with ginger hair an horn-rimmed glasses, his clothing was in about the same shape as Harry's, second hand and tired.

"James, morning, I'm quite alright, quite alright. How are you and yours?" the man asked politely, he was smiling, warm and congenially. Harry tilted his head slightly, he didn't quite know why but he got the feeling that the tall man, for all his good nature, was slightly.... angry? With James Potter... Perhaps it was because Charlus dragged R-something or other with him on that end of school-year adventure Harry kept hearing rumours about. Something to do with Voldemort and a magic toilet seat? Sounded like complete horse-tripe to him.

"Good, good. Arthur, I'd like to introduce you to someone, this is Harry, my youngest," James stated, placing another hand on Harry's other shoulder, possessively at that. He refrained from frowning but only because he was too busy watching the look on Arthur's face.

"'_youngest_'," he echoed a frown beginning to form on his face, "I thought those Daily Prophet rumours about you having a second child stashed away were nothing but Flobberworm Brains."

James chuckled self depreciatingly, "I may as well have been for letting Harry go, but yes, Lily had another baby while we were in hiding. After the attack, we just... we couldn't risk Harry like that."

Arthur's lips thinned slightly with a slight frown crossing his face, "James, I['ll talk to you about this later. The train is leaving, hurry up boys, Ginny," he called to his brood, ushering off the twins, the Prefect, the girl and the boy his age toward the train.

Lily looked up from where she had been chatting with a plump, apple cheeked woman with a kindly smile, "We ready to set off?" she asked, watching as James smiled at her, his expression a little strained as he nodded. "Alright, now you behave yourself Charlus, and take care of your little brother, lord knows he may end up being more like your father than me," she teased, giving her eldest a kiss on the forehead.

"I will mum," Charlus assured her, deciding not to mention that Harry was.... well.... more like a robot than a little boy. Still, just because he didn't _show_ emotion, couldn't mean he didn't have any, and even if he hid himself away, Charlus was going to make sure he stayed alright, he'd always wanted a little brother and now he had one. He never really understood why his mother would cry when he said that but now he knew and he was going to make sure that _no one_ messed with his little bro.

"I love you Harry, take care of yourself," Lily whispered, kissing her youngest on the forehead as she gently hugged him.

Harry blinked up at her in complete bewilderment at the simple display of affection.

He had seen Petunia do it to Dudley but never had anyone done so to him, what.... what was he supposed to do now? Thank her? Hug her?

Charlus grabbed his arm and ushered him towards the train, "See ya mum! Dad! I'll definitely get onto the House Team this year Dad!!" he called.

"Behave yourself!! And _stay out of trouble!! I mean it Charlus!!_" Lily called, her pale face scrunched with worry for her children.

"Knock 'em dead son!!" James called, voice fit to bursting with pride.

Harry didn't bother looking out of the window to wave goodbye as he picked up his trunk and Hedwig's cage and left the compartment, looking for Hermione and Meg. He found them near the back, Jasper had taken up residence on Hermione's lap while she read through a blue hardback book with elegant gold print all over it.

"Hello," he greeted, sliding the door open.

"Harry!" Meg greeted happily, she had gained two inches since he'd last seen her, her hair was cut short to just below her earlobes and it seemed as though she had acquired another scar on the back of her hand – no doubt the work of Jasper from the size and shape of the slice. "How are you? I didn't think you'd be coming back this year without the Aurors having to go and pick you up from your guardians," she admitted, grabbing his trunk and helping him heave it into the luggage rack.

"The Potters came to pick me up," he said by means of explanation.

Meg nodded before she hugged him, towering over him by at least a foot but she still managed to cuddle into him as she did so, Harry looked at Hermione in askance and the brunette just smiled at them, Harry hesitantly patted Meg's back, as he'd seen Vernon do to Petunia during one of their very few and infrequent moments of affection.

Pulling back the Hufflepuff grinned at him, "Now, have you done your homework?" she asked.

"No," he admitted, listening with vague amusement as Hermione dropped her book and started to scold him.

-

Homework for the Summer was actually done in surprisingly quick time, the three of them were pretty smart for twelve-year-olds, factor in the fact that Meg was a hard worker and that Hermione was a natural just shy of genius smarty pants while Harry just didn't allow himself to be distracted from what needed to be done, the three of them finished the workload before the Trolley Lady came by with sweets.

The rest of the journey passed with Hermione and Meg discussing Harry's idea for Chemistry, or more, Hermione explaining Chemistry to Meg – who despite being a Halfblood was homeschooled – while Harry read up on Biology.

When they reached Hogwarts, Harry would have to see Professor Flitwick to inform him that he was unable to get any of his supplies for that school year due to his guardians refusing to take him to Diagon Alley.

-

The Sorting passed quickly enough, Harry had his first decent meal all Summer, Meg darted over and joined him at Dessert, grinning brightly as she stole a piece of treacle tart and munched, ignoring the disapproving looks of the Upper Years.

There was a little bit of an issue at the Gryffindor table when Charlus ate something that was stuffed with a weak poison – the necklace around his throat immediately glowing brightly and causing a panic amongst those that knew what it meant.

Harry paid it no mind.

Something in Dumbledore's stomach twisted at the casual dismissal.

-

Gilderoy Lockhart was a moron.

It was a common consensus amidst the Ravenclaw House, even by the girls – those who actually bothered to read his books with sharp eyes instead of soppy romanticism.

Harry had yet to attend one of the man's lessons, but after reading through his books, Harry could say with some certainty that no, he wasn't a moron.

He was a fraud.

-

Lockhart did not appreciate Harry pointing that out during his lessons, and then listing, categorically by book, chapter, page and paragraph number just how he was being fraudulent.

Harry had detention for the next three months.

But at least he saved the class from havign to deal with a cage of Cornish Pixies that Lockhart was ill equipped to know how to deal with – idiot.

-

He didn't even bother attending.

-

Flitwick showed up and made him go.

-

Harry ignored all of Lockhart's prattle about his books, how the man kept trying to justify the plot holes and hiccups in his writings, the young Ravenclaw wasn't even paying attention as he filled in the addresses of his fan club. Eventually the Professor stopped trying to speak to him when he realised that Harry just _did not care_, for either him, his books or his fame.

It must have been a bitter pill to swallow.

Or...

Harry twitched slightly as he felt hands on his shoulders, fingers digging into his skin and rubbing, the smell of that lavender and camomile whatever it was that Lockhart doused himself with clogging his senses and making his nose and throat hurt.

Maybe something else entirely.

Harry's heart seized entirely with an emotion that he forgot he could even feel, that he kept so far at arms reach that he had relaxed his guard and now it was hammering against his mind with almost painful ferocity.

Fear.

He was scared.

"We've been here a while Harry, you must be tense," the teacher told him and Harry felt the blood drain from his face. This... what...

"I am not. Please remove your hands," he stated, his voice ridiculously steady considering how utterly terrified he was. "I do not like physical contact of any nature."

"Oh, come now Ha- "

"Let me go _now_," Harry snarled, a note of hysteria creeping into his voice, gripping his quill so tightly it snapped in his hand.

"_Imperio_," Lockhart murmured, the cold tip of a wand pressed against the back of Harry's neck.

His wand was out. Harry's mind shut downed, crawled inside of itself, self-preservation instincts took over and he just slumped in his seat, heart running a mile a minute as he just stopped thinking, stopped feeling.

-

When Harry reached the Ravenclaw dormitories later that nice, he went straight into the bathroom and threw up, everything, from lunch that morning to dinner that evening.

He didn't know what _Imperio_ or _Obliviate_ were, what incantations they were supposed to be, but he was going to find out.

Shame and fear burned in his stomach as he shuddered and trembled on the floor, remembering the sensation of his hands on his body.

No! He-he couldn't!

The next morning, Terry Boot would find him in the showers, curled up with his knees against his chest, shaking under the hot water, his eyes dry but empty. He would go and fetch Professor Flitwick who would in turn get Pomfrey and Snape.

Together the two of them would find nothing.

Snape tried breaching into the boy's mind once, only to get so roughly thrown out he slammed into the wall on the opposite side of the bathroom, the only physically reaction Harry showed was a slight hunching of his shoulders and the narrowing of knife-sharp green eyes.

-

The school was in an uproar.

The Chamber of Secrets, Mrs Norris, Slytherin's Beast and Slytherin's Heir.

Harry shuddered slightly as he sat down at the Gryffindor Table, sandwiched between Hermione and Neville, Meg swiftly joined them, and actually growled when Charlus tried to get close, causing the Third Year to jerk and hesitantly leave his brother to the two girls and the timid Second Year as they tried to coax him into eating something more substantial than a piece of buttered toast.

Eventually, it took Meg shoving a muffin in his mouth and telling him that if he didn't eat it, she was shoving it down his throat.

Harry ate the muffin – if only because he knew she would.

-

Because Hermione and Neville were in different Classes all day, Meg stuck to his side like an over protective burr, snarling at anyone who got too close.

She noticed the change in his behaviour in Lockhart's class almost immediately, how he fidgeted, kept his wand within hand's reach, how he would become utterly motionless whenever Lockhart was anywhere near him or called attention to him in class, how he never even _looked_ at the man when in other classes he met everyone's eyes with such frank honestly it disturbed a few of the teachers. Harry didn't speak once.

Meg suddenly found herself with a new burning _hatred_ for Gileroy Lockhart and she didn't even entirely know why she hated him – yet.

-

Harry had detention again tonight.

Flitwick came to collect him again.

If he noticed Harry's behaviour he didn't say anything.

Things followed the same routine, working on the addresses of his fan mail and then... then he would touch.... innocent at first but then he would.... he would trail down and....

Bile burned in Harry's nose as he finished throwing up in the toilets again.

He knew what the Professor was doing, he knew it was wrong, he knew that he should tell someone but.... how did he prove it? He checked what those Spells were, he knew what they did, he didn't know why they didn't work but a complete control spell and a Memory wiper.... they didn't work, Harry wondered what other students had been forced to feed that sick pervert's fetishes?

"Harry?"

The twelve year old jerked as he heard Kevin's voice, bloodshot green eyes whipped around to face the other Second Year.

"Harry, are you alright?" he asked, kneeling down beside the other boy who flinched backwards before he could be touched, he would never realise just how telling that little flinch was to the other Ravenclaw.

Harry shook his head, feeling bile rising again before he turned away and threw up into the toilet again.

"I'm getting Professor Flitwick," he stated, getting to his feet and running out of the bathroom.

Kevin Entwhistle had a younger sister, she was a delicate little thing, pretty – their 33-year-old next door neighbour had certainly thought so too. It took them a while to notice, but Kevin had seen the way she flinched back whenever someone tried to touch her, how she would fidget and freeze whenever their neighbour was anywhere nearby. Her behaviour was now mirroring Harry's.

And that scared him.

Because it meant there was a Paedophile in Hogwarts.

-

For some reason people were beginning to think that Charlus was Slytherin's Heir.

Harry had other things on his mind.

Kevin had told Meg.

And Meg needed physical restraining to stop her from going and murdering Lockhart when she found out.

-

More people had been petrified.

Harry took to dragging Hermione and Meg closer to him, he became fiercely protective of the girls, to the point where when Malfoy called Hermione a Mudblood, Harry had physically attacked him.

In Hogwarts, he was known as a quiet, apathetic boy, cold and logical with little care for emotional entanglements or gossip or any of the subtle political plays around the school. To Slytherin that made him one of the more dangerous people in the school because it meant he was _impossible_ to manipulate or predict because he operated entirely on his own terms and fuck anyone who tried to change them.

Having him suddenly lunge at Draco Malfoy with anger was the last thing anyone expected.

Let alone for Harry to put the heavier and taller boy into the Hospital Wing with such ruthless efficiency that it disturbed the sixth year players who thought they had seen it all.

No one would ever say the 'M' word around Harry ever again, especially not to _any_ of his friends. At least, no one from Hogwarts would.

-

Apparently there had been some kind of uproar at the Quidditch Match – something about a tampered Bludger.

Harry hadn't been paying attention.

He was too busy being examined by a Healer from St Mungos who confirmed – yes, he had been molested and cursed with an Unforgivable to consent to it.

The tight look of absolute _fury_ on Professor Flitwick's face promised a lot of trouble for Lockhart in the future when he was found out.

-

Charlus had arrived at the end of the examination, his arm a rubbery mess and the Gryffindor Quidditch Team following him afterwards.

That was how he found out.

The day after, Lily and James were in Hogwarts and they brought the Aurors with them.

Lockhart tried to do a runner.

Meg, all 4'10" of her skinny self, rugby tackled him from the top of a flight of stairs, breaking his leg and arm, snapping his wand and punched him repeatedly in the back of the head until the Aurors had to physically remove her from the whimpering Celebrity. A quick check of his wand confirmed it.

Gileroy Lockhart was carted away to serve several life sentences in Azkaban for the use of Unforgivables on Minors, sexual abuse of minors, rape of a minor and use of illegal memory charms on minors. And those were just the ones they knew of before they got some Veritaserum down his neck.

Meg was hailed as a Hero in Gryffindor and Hufflepuff for that tackle.

One of the Aurors, a dark skinned man with an earring and a twinkle in his eye, handed her a business card and told her if she ever felt like joining, they could do with someone who had that kind of gumption. The young Hufflepuff had gone a little pink and nodded shyly as she accepted the card.

Hermione teased her later about having a crush.

Harry just tilted his head in confusion – what was a crush?

-

St Mungos dispatched a number of Healers to inspect the students who had been forced to serve detentions with Lockhart – all of them showed signs of abuse, but only one of them had been raped, a little first year girl from Ravenclaw. Pretty little blonde girl with large blue eyes who wore radishes as earrings.

Harry enfolded her into their group of misfits.

Her name was Luna. Luna Lovegood.

-

The Potters tried to take him home for Christmas.

Harry remained at Hogwarts.

He wasn't a member of their family. No matter how much they may try to kid themselves into thinking he was, he was a footnote at best.

Harry spent Christmas with Hermione, Meg, Luna and Neville. The five of them crammed into Ravenclaw's Common Room, it had to be the closest thing to home Harry had ever felt.

-

There was another Petrification.

Hermione.

Hermione had been caught and Petrified.

Harry...... Harry was _**livid**_.

Hermione was _his!_ His friend! _His!_

She was _his!_ Just like Meg was! Just like Luna was! Just like Neville was! _**HIS**_!

And someone was trying to take her away.

-

When the rest of the School returned from their Holidays, they noticed just how _cold_ Harry had become. And then they found out about Hermione.

Popular rumour now was that Harry was hunting for Slytherin's Beast and going to slay it – and his brother who controlled it.

Anyone with half a brain cell realised the Petrification happened while Charlus was at home with his parents.

Sadly, that counted out the majority of the student body.

-

What they didn't know was that they were right. Harry _was_ hunting for Slytherin's Beast and the one who controlled it.

And he had a pretty fair idea of what creature it was too.

-

Hagrid had been arrested.

Apparently, according to Charlus who had been there hiding beneath an Invisibility Cloak, the Ministry did it so they '_could be seen to be doing something_'.

Dumbledore had been dismissed at the same time.

-

Ginny had been taken.

Luna was beside herself, Ginny was one of her only friends.

Seeing the little first year sobbing her heart out made Harry angry. Why was it always the little ones who had to hurt because of the adult's stupidity?

-

Hogwarts was closing early.

No one could find the Chamber of Secrets.

The Petrified students were being moved to St Mungos, Dumbledore was being reinstated and he would be heading the Auror contingent that was sweeping the castle for the Beast and the Heir.

It was a confirmed fact in the Newspapers by this point....

Ginevra Weasley was dead.

-

Lily and James were waiting for him at the Station.

Apparently, in the year he was at Hogwarts, they had won their legal battle against the Dursleys.

Harry and Dudley would be living with them and Charlus while Vernon and Petunia served prison sentences.

Once they had finished their time inside, then maybe they could apply for custody of their son back, but it was very doubtful they would be able to afford the legal battle. The millions of pounds they stole from Harry's Trust Fund was going to be repaid over many, many, many years of their lives. As decreed by Wizarding Law.

Lily was considering the possibility of sending Harry and Charlus to a different magic school.

As for Dudley, he was definitely being pulled out of Smeltings and put into a nice respectable boarding school which would teach him matters and the skills he would need to get by in life. Not coddle him until he needed help to wipe his arse and then make him believe that it should be their honour to handle his shit.

Harry wondered how Lily and James would handle Dudley's infamous temper tantrums when he found out about this.

-

**Year Two finished.**

**Yeah. I made Lockhart a Pedo. Know why? Well, why else would an international Celebrity come to Hogwarts to teach? To boost his book sales, maybe, but all he would need to do about that was write another one and he would get even more sales. Nah, he always struck me as a pervert, the capacity for miss-use on those Memory Charms was just too big for me to ignore. **

**Harry is slowly getting more emotive as time progresses. You can blame Meg and Hermione for that. But he's developing them all over again, starting with very negative emotions like anger and possessiveness and fear. Harry's possessive over his friends, they are **_his_** friends. **

Araceil


	3. Third Year

**Beyond the Pale**

**Year Three**

**(Line break)**

An owl arrived a week into the Summer Holidays, one for Lily and James, and one each for Harry and Charlus.

Hogwarts was going to be closed for the coming year due to Political and Health and Safety Concerns.

No explanation was given as to what Health and Safety Concerns they were, it wasn't needed because it was plastered all over the Prophet every morning. Not only had the Aurors _not_ found Slytherin's Beast but the parents of the abused children were bringing legal action against Dumbledore and the Board of Governors for allowing Lockhart near their children without a full and completely thorough background check. For not contacting the Aurors upon the very _first_ Petrifaction of Mrs Norris. For not calling the Department for the Control of Dangerous Magical Creatures when a Troll got loose in the Dungeons. For sending students into the Forbidden Forest as a Detention.

And now that the investigation had begun – the dirty laundry of Hogwarts was being blasted across the morning edition of the Prophet.

Snape's previous Death Eater allegiances. Hagrid's half Giant ancestry. Professor Sinistra's affair with the father of one of her students, a married man at that. Dumbledore's estrangement from his younger brother Aberforth and why – the whole sordid tale of Grindelwald and his younger sister Ariana. The Cerberus hidden in the Third Floor. The _Philosopher's Stone_ hidden within the school – an item that the Ministry had been trying to get off Nicholas Flamel ever since he created it, and then _destroying_ the priceless artefact. _Knowingly_ allowing a man possessed by a Dark Spirit/Wraith onto the grounds as a Teacher and then luring a group of students to fight said Wraith. And doing the same again with those same students, attempting to set them onto the trail of Slytherin's Beast and slay the creature – though with extremely limited success.

Sufficed to say, if Hogwarts was to ever open again Dumbledore would most certainly _not_ be involved with it in any way shape or form.

It was probably for the best then that Lily was looking for a new school to send both Charlus and Harry to come the new academic year while James looked into the possibilities of Home Schooling the both of them should the need arise.

**(Line break)**

The Potters' had a nice house, not big but not small and not really what Harry had been expecting.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he had been expecting some kind of mixture of Privet Drive and Hogwarts somehow rolled into one with a classic Wizarding flair – re: completely pointless and mind-boggling.

But no, it was a simple Tudor style three floored townhouse with a Tower and a slate roof, a large flower garden in front and an orchard in the back plonked in the middle of the Cornish countryside. He was right about it being a mix of Wizarding and Muggle but it wasn't in the way he had been expecting, there was very little in the way of technology and a large amount of Enchanted objects and knickknacks from foreign countries but the decoration was a mix of open-plan modern and medieval Gothic that was somehow both interesting and attractive.

The ground floor was a living room, kitchen, dining room, foyer and a small library. Upstairs was Lily and James's bedroom along with an office, a large Duelling Hall – bigger on the inside than it was on the outside and stuffed to the gills with enchantments so as not to be damaged or disturb anyone else in the house – and a Guest bedroom with on-suite. On the third floor was a large balcony that had a greenhouse for Magical Plants and a Broomstick shed plus flight deck, Charlus's room which was large and painted in reds, oranges, yellows and black, Dudley's room which was neutral in white, crème and brown and Harry's which was attached to the small tower in blues, whites and silvers.

Lily had looked very nervous when showing him the room, shyly admitting that she had decorated it herself especially for him and that she hoped he liked it. There were books, a lot of books and several curiosities and the like from other cultures that caught his eye, she hadn't tried to personalise it for him but it was comfortable and he found himself nodding.

"It's nice," he admitted touching a delicate rice-paper privacy screen studying the pale blue, silver and dark blue patterns printed onto it.

Lily beamed.

**(Line break)**

Charlus blamed himself for not being able to save Ginny Weasley.

R-something or other did as well and he had said as much through the Floo connection at the top of his lungs having called them up just so he could make his juvenile feelings known.

When the connection ended, Charlus had gone to James and demanded that his lessons be increased.

Staring at his son long and hard eventually the former Auror nodded, "Alright, I'll increase the difficulty and frequency."

Harry watched as James had to carry his son up the stairs later that night, the older teenager having been worked so hard he physically couldn't walk for muscle fatigue and pain. So much for Malfoy's mutterings of the Gryffindor Golden Boy being spoilt rotten and treated like a King.

**(Line break)**

Dudley kept throwing tantrums left and right.

Lily had forbidden both Charlus and James from casting spells at or around him – her main reason being that he was frightened of magic and she refused to have a child be terrorised in her home. But it didn't make dealing with him any easier.

At one point he had cornered Harry with every intention of beating him senseless for ruining his life – Charlus caught him in the act and punched him hard enough to knock him onto his fat bum and start crying. As punishment, Lily made Charlus go to his room and stay there for twenty minutes (it wasn't really a punishment as Charlus and Harry both knew but she had to be seen to be fair and punish him for committing a violent act instead of _nearly_ doing so as Dudley had done) before making Dudley sit on the stairs and stay there for ten minutes, every time he stood up and tried to leave she would march him straight back and sit him down where the ten minutes would begin all over again.

Dudley did everything he could to get out of it.

He cried, he wailed, he screamed, he tried to blame Harry and then Charlus, he insulted her – she added five minutes to his punishment – he forced himself to be sick and then he finally tried to physically strike her. At that point she grabbed him by the ear and pulled him into the kitchen where she slapped the palm of his hand three times with a wooden spoon and told him to go to his room and stay there until dinner time.

He wailed and he howled and he sobbed and kicked and trashed his room but he didn't leave.

Come dinner time he shuffled out, red faced, tear streaked, silent and defeated.

It wasn't the last tantrum, but it was the last time Dudley ever raised his hand to anyone in the house ever again.

**(Line break)**

Dudley's birthday was a double event, a trip to visit his parents at their respective institutions and a trip to the cinema and a meal out with his friends in London.

Petunia had burst into tears at the sight of her son with her sister and the rest of the family. She had flung her arms around her portly son who had equally returned her hug hard enough that had she been even a tiny bit thinner she would have snapped like a twig. The Potters had retreated to the far side of the room to allow them some time together; Petunia wouldn't stop touching him, stroking his face and sobbing in relief over the sight of him. Harry could distinctly hear Dudley complaining about missing his TV shows and about how they wouldn't let him have sweets whenever he wanted and how Aunt Lily smacked his hand for no reason. Lily stiffened at that particular whine and the answering simper from her sister, she said nothing though, quietly seething in the background as she wrapped her arms around Harry and hugged him lightly.

Visiting hour probably passed entirely too swiftly for Petunia but it was agonisingly slow for the rest of them, at the five minute left mark the horse faced woman gestured her sister over and smothered her son in hugs and kisses before waving him off.

Harry couldn't hear what was said, they spoke in low and _mean_ voices.

But whatever Petunia said, it made Lily draw herself up to her full height and look at her with every scrap of cold scorn, anger and disgust in her being – looking every inch the Lady Potter she was and say: "_I have treated your son as though he were my own. You're here because you cannot say the same, Petunia. Grow up_," before turning and marching away from her gob-smacked older sister who suddenly looked very small and fragile to Harry's eyes.

The trip to Vernon was less than successful.

The large man refused to even see them, he spat pure vitriol at them and at his son who had apparently been infected with their '_freakishness_'.

Lily and James had been nearly apoplectic at hearing those words, but Harry got the feeling it wasn't because he was calling them Freaks but more because Dudley had begun to shed tears. Not the crocodile ones he used to get his own way or the fat red faced ones he spilled when he was angry and throwing a tantrum. They were slow and silent and he actually tried to hide them. Vernon had really hurt him by saying that.

Charlus had been equally angry and stormed off to go and stand in the corridor, Harry caught sight of him punching the wall in a fit of anger through the window.

They all headed home where Lily made Dudley's favourite food for him before tucking him up into bed.

That day was a disaster but at least he cheered up enough by the weekend where it was time for his trip to the cinema with his friends. Harry and Charlus remained at home with James where they decided to teach Harry a few Self Defence Spells – just in case.

**(Line break)**

Harry hadn't made any comment on his birthday as it was a non issue for him, he was thirteen just another year older that was all.

Which was why he blinked in mild shock to see Hermione, Meg, Neville, Luna, Kevin Entwhistle and Terry Boot in the kitchen along with his parents, Charlus and Dudley bickering about where the streamers and balloons should go.

It was a quiet affair, presents were passed out, Harry gave them all a confused blink which just received beaming smiles and encouragements to open them – which he did and received a number of books, a box of Chocolate frogs, a box of incense, a plant, Jelly Beans and a few magical odds and ends – just baubles really.

Then everyone ate cake that Lily had made, Victoria Sponge with butter cream and raspberry jam filling – it was tasty.

Then, for lack of anything to do, they all played hide and seek.

Harry was the last one to be found and even then it took James cheating and casting a Point Me Charm to find him where he was hidden in the guttering of the house – Dudley then received a chocolate frog because he had bet Charlus that Harry would be the last one to be found.

That done, they all went into the house where they played a Wizarding game called '_Hunt the Wracklespurts_', Dudley had been a bit hesitant but when he found out it was kind of like a mixture of 99-In and It he had been more interested in it. Lily conjured various little lights in the shape of butterflies that would fly around the house, everyone would be armed with a Net and a jar, the one who caught the most butterflies and got back to the Base and evoked the butterflies won.

Meg surprising won that one; she was utterly ruthless in hunting the things down. She even launched herself down the stairs to get a butterfly before Terry managed to catch it – she ended up with skinned knees but upon winning she received a conjured crown made of gold.

Luna took the butterflies and threaded them into her hair and sang a nonsense song under her breath as she trailed along after them until it was time to go home.

The next morning Charlus had a much larger party for his fourteenth birthday, all his friends from Hogwarts – a number which had severely been cut in half due to how most of them were sheep who only stuck around to ride on his coattails. R-something or other showed up, dragged in by the ear by his mother who ordered him to apologise while his elder twin brothers immediately vanished into the house – no doubt to find James and badger him for Pranking tips. And then his friends from America showed up along with the ones he had around Europe and even a few from China and Japan and India appeared.

It was a huge event and Harry found himself hiding in an obscure corner to avoid most of the people with Dudley unexpectedly at his side, both of them unwilling to enter into the crush, though for different reasons. Dudley because they were all Magical and he was very intimidated and didn't understand anything that was being said and Harry because there was no space and he didn't like the idea of being touched. At all. By any of them.

Eventually they went outside for a massive game of Quidditch which became Quadpot which then became something else not quite as complicated but much faster paced and difficult to pull off from the look of it.

Cake was had, presents were given, songs were sung and then people began to trickle off home as the sun sank lower on the horizon.

Albus Dumbledore was the last to leave and he walked out leaving Lily and James tense and in tears.

Harry was finding that he didn't much like Albus Dumbledore.

Not much at all.

**(Line break)**

Lily found them a school.

A little independent one in Wales by the name of St James' Monastery in Aberystwyth, right on the coast.

It had none of Hogwarts grandiose, being that it was an old political prison with a church built over it, converted into a mansion, turned into an abattoir, burned down and then rebuilt into a school. It had an extremely dark and gory history filled with murder, torture, black magic, heroics and romance that wasn't really romance.

When James found out he had put his foot down and _forbidden_ them from attending.

The two hadn't argued about it in front of them, they hadn't even shouted unlike Petunia and Vernon. They sent Charlus and Harry out to go and learn some obscure Ancient Magic Spell that boosted one's physical capabilities before hissing at each other in sharp and quiet voices. He supposed it was better than the way his Aunt and Uncle argued – for one they didn't do it in front of Charlus, Dudley or Harry, or take out their anger on him afterwards.

In the end, Harry and Charlus ended up being home schooled.

Harry still wasn't sure whether this was a good or a bad thing because with the Home Schooling, both Lily and James had called in various favours from old friends to come in and teach the two of them little bits and pieces that their parents would then show them how to thread into other subjects.

It wasn't so bad though.... Tonks reminded him a lot of Meg, or rather, how Meg could be when she was older.

**(Line break)**

Hermione was attending Beauxbatons in France, Meg was back to being homeschooled, Neville often came over to theirs for homeschooling as his Grandmother didn't trust his Uncle Algie with a wand – let alone teach her Grandson. The Weasleys were all being kept in close to the family, Luna often ended up joining them when Molly or their eldest brothers, Charlie and Bill, gave lessons – for the most part though, the Weasleys were still in mourning and held no interest in education right now.

Word had it that the majority of Purebloods were now either being homeschooled or put to Durmstrang – Draco Malfoy being one of the prominent names to be put into the Foreign School.

"Good," Charlus muttered when he found out, glaring at his muggle notebook as he put the last finishing touches on the thunder cloud, "Maybe he'll stay there," the young Boy-Who-Lived hoped sourly as he jabbed his wand at the drawing, enchanting it into motion and making the thundercloud shoot a lightning bolt down, setting fire to a stick figure of Draco Malfoy.

Funnily enough though, Harry found himself agreeing with his brother.

He did _not_ like Draco Malfoy.

**(Line break)**

It was Halloween.

Dumbledore was back and he'd dragged Lily and James and his brother into the office to talk to them.

Harry had been left alone.

The dark haired teenager toyed with the Meditation Balls his mother had left in the room, the delicate chiming filling the silence as he rolled them across the palm of his hand. His room was actually filled with a lot of Eastern Influences with some curious Indian and Russian touches here and there, he liked it like that though, he wouldn't mind going and seeing them in real life to be honest. Charlus had told him that while Hogwarts does education from eleven to seventeen, the Japanese did from eleven to fifteen before putting students through a kind of Magical 'College' and 'University' where they could learn how to specialise in certain subjects before moving on. It sounded a lot more beneficial than the British and European system of Apprenticeships.

Still...

He wasn't quite sure what he felt but he didn't like it.

It was cold and heavy and... a little bitter too. Was this loneliness or was it sadness?

There was also a little niggle.

He knew what that niggle was, he had felt it only fleetingly a few times before. Curiosity.

He wanted to know why Dumbledore was here and why he was demanding private meetings with his parents and brother and why Harry wasn't being included in them if they were so important.

He restrained himself though. If it was that important then Lily and James would tell him, if they didn't, his brother would. After all, they had told him about the Prophesy, about Pettigrew and about what happened the night they were attacked – and the fall out with one of their friend's afterwards. Remus Lupin had not been pleased with them for abandoning Harry with Petunia and thinking him the Traitor, words were exchanged and then James said the worst thing possible: '_because you're a werewolf_'. Lupin had walked out and they'd never seen him again, rumour had it he moved somewhere to Russia where he had either settled down as a hermit or died – James was too scared of finding out what his old friend's fate had become, no matter how guilty he felt.

Lily and James weren't Saints.

They weren't wonderful and pure people, the epitome of all that was Light in the world of magic.

They were good people. But...

They were human.

They made mistakes and they felt entirely too much and too hard to be the wonderful people the public made them out to be.

Simply put, they were as selfish, stupid and clumsy as the rest of them.

Harry put the Meditation Balls away in their silk embroidered box, the chimes falling quiet and the room going silent.

And then he heard the sound of the door.

Charlus knocked before pushing in, much too furious and upset to wait for his brother to give him permission, and slammed the door shut behind him in his father's face – sending the message _loud and clear_ that he did not want to talk to him. For a moment, the two brothers watched the door as if expecting their father to shove it open and scold them for being so rude but he didn't and they heard his footsteps moving away.

The Gryffindor began to pace the room under his brother's flat green gaze, his hands clenching and unclenching as he growled and moved, unable to sit down or calm down.

"They still haven't found it!" Charlus finally bit out, "Dumbledore says he needs me to find it, that I'm the only one who CAN find it."

Harry tilted his head slightly, "You cannot," he stated.

"_No!_ I can't! Or I would have gone and rescued Ron's sister!" ah, so that was what his name was. Charlus sat down on the end of Harry's bed, gripping his black hair and tugging on it harshly, "He was right! It is my fault she's dead! Dumbledore pretty much just _confirmed_ it!" he explained, voice beginning to break as he ripped at his scalp.

Harry grabbed his hands and pulled them away, "How?" he asked, "How is it your fault?"

Charlus blinked at him, his eyes were slightly slanted, not as large as Harry's but they were definitely in the same shape as Lily's, they were just brown, a warm hazel brown. The fourteen year old sighed softly and hung his head, "Dumbledore thinks that when Voldemort gave me the scar, he left a little bit of himself in me. He thinks I should be able to speak to Snakes, but I can't. And the only way of getting into the Chamber of Secrets is by speaking Snake," he explained quietly.

Harry blinked at him before poking him in the forehead like Meg sometimes did to Luna or Neville, "Why doesn't he just use his Phoenix to go down there?" the thirteen year old asked, startling his older brother into looking up.

Charlus goggled at him, "What?" he asked weakly.

Harry sat back, releasing his hands now that he was certain his brother wasn't going to be ripping his hair out any longer. "Professor Dumbledore has a Phoenix, doesn't he? I heard one of the older students talking about it. Phoenix can travel through bursts of fire and light, correct?" Charlus nodded dumbly, "Why doesn't he ask his Phoenix to take him down there? The bird is tied into the wards of Hogwarts; surely it can follow the lines to the Chamber of Secrets."

"B-but what about the monster?" the Gryffindor asked.

"It's a Basilisk," Harry pointed out, "Hardly something any fourteen year old should have to handle, let alone a thirteen year old. I fail to see how this can be in any way your fault. If anyone were to be blamed, it would be Dumbledore and the previous Headmasters before him for failing to conduct full and complete safety checks on the whole castle."

Charlus could only giggle a little hysterically.

**(Line break)**

Dumbledore was in the kitchen the next morning when the two brothers came down, sat at the table as though he owned it while Lily glared at him from the kitchen and James sat, tense and unhappy, to his left.

"Charlus, my boy," the old man greeted jovially.

Harry allowed himself a frown, "My brother doesn't belong to you Mr Dumbledore, don't say that," he stated flatly, Charlus wasn't Dumbledore's '_boy_' or his '_anything_'.

"Harry," Lily scolded, or tried to, her heart just wasn't into it because she too had been entertaining thoughts of a similar nature. "Show some respect to Professor Dumbledore."

"He isn't a Professor anymore. He has no legal right to be here, you aren't even friends with him. Every time he comes here you cry, he gets angry and my brother looks like he is expected to climb Mount Everest with his bare hands," the young Ravenclaw pointed out coldly, folding his arms and glaring at the old man. "I don't like you."

Dumbledore laughed, it sounded rather nervous to Harry's ears, "I'm sure it's not all that bad, Harry m'boy."

Harry's frown became a scowl, "Do not call me that. I am not your anything," he hissed.

He was ignored, "Perhaps this would be smoother if it were just Charlus and myself," the ex-Headmaster suggested delicately. Lily glared at him and he chuckled, again, rather nervously, "Ah, hmm, very well then! Let us begin!" he suggested enthusiastically brandishing his wand so suddenly that Harry automatically stepped in front of his brother and James twitched towards his wand. Harry's reaction did not go unnoticed and while Lily and James beamed, Dumbledore's face tightened for a split second.

"What are you doing?" Charlus demanded warily, after what Harry had explained to him, laid out for him in such flat, logical and emotionless facts, he had opened his eyes quite wide and dissolved his trust of the old man quite considerably.

Dumbledore's face tightened further and his Grandfatherly smile became just that little more forceful, "Just a quick check to see if Charlus can speak Parseltongue. I'll be conjuring a snake, if he can understand what it is hissing that means he is a Parselmouth," the white haired male explained getting to his feet.

A murmured incantation later and a rather handsome black Egyptian Asp was coiled up on the floor of the kitchen, Lily tensed immediately and recoiled away while Charlus eyed the reptile warily and Harry simply blinked and studied it. Weren't Egyptian Asps poisonous?

The serpent squirmed in place and hissed at them, Charlus shook his head, "I can't understand it," he stated defensively.

Dumbledore looked shocked, "Come now my boy, I know Parseltongue isn't fondly looked on but there is nothing to be ashamed of."

Charlus shot him a glare, "I told you! It just sounds like hissing to me, I can't understand it."

The former Headmaster suddenly looked to the younger brother, "Harry, can you understand it?" he asked, heart sinking.

Harry stared at him and then at the snake before looking back again, "No."

**(Line break)**

But he lied.

He _could_ understand the Snake.

He just didn't trust Dumbledore.

He didn't care about the Chamber of Secrets, about Dumbledore, about Voldemort, about Ginny or the Weasleys, he didn't even much care about the Wizarding World as a collective – in fact he rather _disliked_ the collective Wizarding World as opposed to simply not caring.

So he waited until Dumbledore had left – after telling him to simply use his Phoenix and stop bothering them – and told his parents.

The look of horror on their faces instantly made him regret that decision.

**(Line break)**

Christmas was going to be a cheerful family event, Dudley was home for the holiday and they had planned a trip to see Petunia at the Prison on Christmas Day afternoon so she could spend some time with her son. Boxing day they were going to be having friends and guests over, Hermione's parents wanted to meet them, Meg was determined to check on Harry and make sure there was no lost progress on his 'rehabilitation', Neville and Luna just wanted to see him again.

The only downside to these plans was that the Weasleys were going to be joining them that day as well.

**(Line break)**

Petunia looked tired and thin when they next saw her, Harry's sharp eyes picked out the bruises on her wrists that she tried to keep hidden by her sleeves – he pointed them out to Lily who questioned the guard, she was clueless but promised to keep an eye on things. They gave her a few cards and a chocolate bar which were treated with an almost reverence by the blonde haired woman before going on their way.

Back at the Potters, they had Christmas dinner and then were allowed to open their presents.

Dudley got a few Muggle items, a Gift card for HMV, a CD player, money, a water-pistol and a few muggle sweets.

Charlus got a new pair of Dragon Hide boots with a matching Wand Holster, a new Broomstick – a Nimbus 2001, a Broomstick servicing Kit, chocolate frogs, jellybeans, a pocket watch and some Meditation Balls from Harry to help him with his Occlumency.

Harry received a lot of books, some money, a wand holster and cloak, a small set of Magical models – phoenix, dragons and unicorns, a set of magical Diaries that acted almost like what Dudley called a 'chatroom' from the Muggle internet and a few comic books from Dudley.

The next day Harry awoke to an unusual chaos running rampant through the house.

Lily was busy in the kitchen whipping up enough food to feed an army, James was busy in the orchard flicking his wand this way and that way while Charlus was cleaning the house and Dudley was shirking off as much work as possible to hide in his room. Harry ended up joining his mother in cleaning while Dudley was quite firmly wrangled into cleaning the bathroom.

Tonight the Potters were holding a Christmas Party.

Hermione showed up fairly early via the Knight Bus with her parents looking a little startled and dazed as they stopped off the triple decker purple monstrosity. The Gryffindor had changed since Harry last saw her, not by much but it was enough for Harry to notice, she was a bit taller, she'd filled out a touch, her skin had a light tan and her previously bushy hair was now sleek and curly, she wore a pretty gold evening dress with a black shawl and obsidian jewellery set in gold. Looking between his Muggleborn friend and her parents, he could quite firmly say she took after her father in appearances – though thankfully she had her mother's nose.

The young Witch looked him up and down and laughed before hugging him tightly and shoving a wrapped present under his nose, judging by the size and weight of it he was holding a rather heavy leather bound tomb – a quick sniff confirmed that it was fairly old as well and probably from somewhere in France.

Meg showed up next wearing a long white dress of multiple layers – she looked a little like the hippy lady who used to live in Magnolia Crescent, especially with the beaded necklaces. Her hair had grown some and she'd gotten quite a bit taller and seemed almost gangly now – she was still fairly tanned and entirely too energetic, as demonstrated as she physically dragged her mother down the path to meet him. Her mother hardly looked a thing like her with thick curly black hair, mocha coloured skin and olive eyes, full pouty lips and a short curvy hourglass figure that was just short of voluptuous. Somehow, Harry wasn't surprised that Meg had some Gypsy in her, he was a little surprised that her mother was a Gypsy though – and such an old fashioned one as well. Prancing over, the white clad girl solemnly bestowed a small wrapped package to him before telling him she'd made it herself and pulling her mother into the house to meet Hermione.

Luna showed up with the rest of the Weasley clan, her father in tow, she wore the most horrific set of bright, bright eye-gouging orange robes he had ever seen on a human being in his life, trimmed in black lace with a large lime green lily fascinator and purple fishnet veil – and her favoured radish earrings, plus bottle cap necklace – she looked exactly the same as the last time Harry saw her.

The Weasleys were dressed as nicely as they could afford, the majority of the kids in second hand ill fitting robes, the eldest with the long hair in leather and spikes with an easy going grin – Harry found himself fascinated, he'd never seen anyone or anything like it. The short and stockier of the two wore simple cut robes, ironed and clean, casual yet smart. He too had an easy grin on his face. The Gryffindor Prefect was puffed up and slicked back as always, glasses catching the light from the Fairies Charlus had talked into acting as decorations for the house.

The mother, Molly, greeted him warmly and fussed slightly over his hair before bustling off into the house to find Lily – he could have sworn he'd heard her muttering something about 'awful business' and 'abandoning', 'despicable', 'Arthur' and 'bad opinion'. Harry had the feeling she was talking about him and his parents.

Ron ignored him and marched into the house looking for Charlus, the twins greeted and teased him while ruffling his hair, Percy sniffed at him and strutted into the house like an over-stuffed peacock, the older two – Charlie and Bill – said hello, Merry Christmas, shook his hand before excusing themselves and disappearing into the house to hunt down their younger siblings. Arthur, the father, stayed outside and chatted to him for a bit while Luna's father drifted absently through the flower beds 'ooh'ing and 'ahh'ing over various things only he could see.

Neville showed up then, Portkeying in with his Grandmother Augusta – wearing a large stuffed vulture atop a slightly moth eaten old hat.

"C'mon! Your Dad's hosting some kind of Duelling Tournament in the garden!" Meg exclaimed, literally popping up out of nowhere behind him, "Evenin' Nev!" she called exuberantly, waving at the blushing brunet in his very posh and uncomfortably itchy dress robes – a good few generations out of date at that. "You coming to the Tournament as well?" she asked.

Neville rapidly shook his head with a sideways glance to his Grandmother who looked as thought she had just swallowed a lime at the thought of her Grandson in such a thing. Or at the sight of Meg, it was hard to tell.

The tournament was really nothing more than a bit of fun and a way of keeping the teenagers out of trouble while everyone was eating or dancing or chatting. Five targets, ten shots. The one who got the highest points won. Bull's eye was worth five points, first ring four, second ring thee, third ring two, last ring one and if you missed you got nothing. They were only allowed paint charms and they would be borrowing the wands from their parents so as not to get into trouble with the Ministry.

Neville actually decided to join in on this one, slightly nervous and stumbling over himself when he asked his Grandmother if he could borrow her wand but with a simple imperious sniff she handed over the length of Oak – not noticing the odd expression on his face as he took grasp of it.

They took turns in groups of three, Hermione, Meg and Luna facing off in one group with Harry, Neville and Charlus in the other. Girls vs Boys.

Unsurprisingly, Charlus won out of the boys, Harry came in second having missed one of the targets when they started to move but Neville had been the most surprising. He hadn't missed a single one, he only got two bull's eyes but he hadn't missed at all.

Luna lost, horribly. A quick check from Lily confirmed that it was because she couldn't actually _see_ the targets, apparently she was short sighted – anything after ten feet got blurry which meant she was alright in class, as she sat in the front row, and she could read books fine, but she couldn't see the targets.

Hermione and Meg actually tied the first time over, both of the girl's natural competitiveness rearing their ugly heads. Meg got more Bull's eyes but she also missed a fair bit. Hermione never missed but she never got a Bull's eye either.

Everyone sat back and cheered as the two eventually devolved into a mock Duel with James overseeing them to make sure nothing got too out of hand as the pair tossed off various very low level irritant hexes and jinxes. By the end of it, Meg ended up with light green skin and her hair turned to ivy with flowers threaded through it and yellow eyes, Hermione's ears had sprouted flowers and her nose hair had grown down to her naval while her skin had been turned a rather unpleasant shade of bile yellow. Somehow Harry ended up getting Jinxed as well – though he had a sneaking suspicion that was James's handiwork as the Partial Transfiguration he got hit with was of a much higher level than Meg was capable of and Hermione wouldn't throw something like that at anyone.

Still, he didn't mind the foxy ears and tail. He just wished Luna would stop petting them.

**(Line break)**

Hermione's present _was_ a book, but it was one that he knew he would be enjoying a lot more than the joke present he rather randomly received from the Weasley Twins. '_Spell Chains_'.

Meg's present turned out to be a Dream Catcher, charmed to prevent nightmares and traumatic flashbacks – it was white and blue with a Quartz Crystal tied into the centre of the Acromantula silk webbing.

From Luna he received a corset. A women's corset in dark red and black with lace and ruffles. Harry had stared at it in pure confusion for all of ten minutes before Charlus caught sight of it and promptly busted a gut laughing until he had to stumble off to the bathroom for fear of wetting himself. When Lily and James found out James looked highly amused and Lily giggled as she tried to explain why she thought Luna had given him a piece of women's lingerie. Harry merely blinked at her in confusion before handing it to her and saying she could keep it as it matched her hair, he left the room after that and never saw the lecherous expression that crossed onto James's face as he touched the black lace.

The book from the Twins was an encyclopaedia of Pranking Charms, Harry gave it a once over and put it on his shelf of '_nice to have but somewhat useless_' books. Two days later he was pulling it out and looking for a Charm he could send at his father after he ended up with wings instead of ears.

Neville gave him a plant; he'd gotten a peek at Harry's room during his birthday and a few subsequent visits afterwards and decided it could do with some more greenery – maybe? Harry didn't know – and then proceeded to grow him a Bonsai tree and a few other flora odds and ends to place in strategic placed. Still, it was nice, they were already beginning to flower some of them – they smelled nice too.

New Years Day was greeted with an Early Morning edition of the Daily Prophet – the front page proudly proclaiming, in a squeaky enchanted voice: "**CHAMBER OF SECRETS FOUND – DUMBLEDORE KILLS SLYTHERIN'S BEAST**"

That meant Hogwarts would probably be opened next year.

Harry shrugged a shoulder and went back to reading his History text, he didn't care.

**(Line break)**

But he was really beginning to think he should have as three months down the line another edition of the Prophet proclaimed that Dumbledore would be staying on as Headmaster of Hogwarts where the Boy Who Lived and his younger brother would be attending next year.

Or so they believed.

Harry could have sworn he heard his mother talking to someone in America about enrolling that at some place called Ipswich Institute for Magically Gifted Boys.

**(Line break)**

**FINISHED!! AT LONG FUCKING LAST!!!**

**Right. Just to explain a few things to those of you who have been impatient and annoying and haven't stopped HOLLARING at me via PM and e-mail and Facebook messaging – when I posted up the second chapter to this that meant it was now a story, no longer a One Shot. THAT MEANT I WOULD FINISH IT!! So sit down shut up and let me get on with it because this chapter has been rewritten THREE times because I wasn't happy with it.**

**Some people seemed a little confused about a few things so I'll try to explain here:**

Arthur Weasley: Harry doesn't have a strong grasp of emotion, he's using Logic here and as we all know Logic is the opposite of emotion. Arthur is unhappy with James because he ditched Harry at the Dursleys, because he abandoned one of his children. And to someone with seven kids, who works himself to the bone just so they can stay together and be a family together and be happy together, it's practically a Holy Sin to do something like that.

Charlus and the Potters: Someone made a note that Charlus was a pampered prince and the Potters were the classic '_abandonment_' couple we see so often in some of the other stories. No, no they aren't and I hope this chapter has proven that to you people. We all know what happened to Neville's parents after Voldemort was destroyed, that was them just _looking_ for information, how do you think they would have acted while trying to get revenge? Charlus was taken out of the country to protect him – they couldn't have hidden in any of the Safe Houses because Peter would have known about them. He would have been able to get through the Wards, the Potters couldn't take that kind of risk especially since there was a damn good chance of Peter passing the locations of every safe house to the Death Eaters. Charlus would be three at this point. Old enough to use Magical transportation without ill effect. Harry would be fifteen months, much too young for that kind of travelling. Hence why Lily put him into Petunia's care, believing that her older sister would put aside her petty jealousy because there was a child's life on the line. Aside from raise him Petunia would not have to support him at all because the Potters provided the money for him.

Charlus isn't pampered, he's being trained to take down a Dark Lord, James used to be an Auror he won't be stupid enough to make his son soft when he'll have to deal with something that monumental. As for the Sorting Hat's comment regarding his mental shielding, he was eleven, no healthy eleven year old can completely control and shield their mind. The fact that he even has those 'curtains' is incredible when you think about the fact that Canon!Harry at 16 can't even manage that.

Flitwick and Lockhart: It's my understanding that throughout the books the Heads of Houses have a very hands off approach to their students, McGonagall only shows up in a capacity as a crowd control, career advisor and teacher. This is the application I put towards Flitwick, however, since Ravenclaws are generally much more well behaved than the Gryffindors he isn't around that much as he would probably be assisting the older years with preparations for their NEWT exams. My reasoning is he merely brushed Harry's behaviour off as Boyish Discomfort at being forced into attending a Detention – after all, this would be the first time that Flitwick would have had any kind of personal contact with Harry outside of lessons and escorting him to see Roger Davis.

At my old school, if you tried to skip Detention the teachers would get a prefect or a classmate to hunt you down and bring you back. You had Lunch detention, after school detention, internal suspension, suspension and then expulsion at my school in order of severity. If you had internal suspension you were put into a plain room in one of the outbuildings and you weren't allowed to leave, the teacher on Duty would even go to the cafeteria and buy you lunch and escort you to the bathroom.

This is why Flitwick is so angry; he unknowingly put one of his students into danger more than once.

**Hope this explains some stuff for everyone.**

**Now: Question time.**

**I'm debating over whether or not to keep Harry and Charlus in Hogwarts. Should they stay, or should they go to Ipswich?**


	4. Fourth Year

**Beyond the Pale**

_I said it wasn't abandoned._

**Year Four**

(.)

Neither Neville nor Luna were entirely sure about how to react to Harry informing them he wouldn't be returning to Hogwarts. Hermione could see how he would find Ispwich to be the better choice, she had already made arrangements to continue her education at Beauxbatons instead of Hogwarts, she claimed that while Hogwarts boasted a grand history and Dumbledore and a _record_ of being the best that Europe can offer, it just simply wasn't true. She preferred Beauxbatons who taught a variety of magics that the Pureblood Reign in England had labelled forbidden simply because they weren't British, not to mention the fact that some of them had been created by so called '_Mudbloods_'. But she was getting off topic, she could understand how he would prefer to remain away from Hogwarts which had thus far proven to hold nothing but bad memories for him.

Meg just shrugged and told him that it was his choice, her mother was already planning to continue her Home Education as she wasn't pleased with Hogwarts thus far. Her Divination Skills were on the up and her mother was determined to bring out their family gift in her daughter, one that tended to skip several generations at a time, the power of Foresight.

Neville would definitely be returning to Hogwarts no matter what he had to say on the matter. His Grandmother would not allow him to go anywhere else – Harry felt that the woman was emotionally abusing her Grandson by trying to turn him into a carbon copy of his Father with a vague nod in his mother's general direction. He wasn't sure if he liked Augusta Longbottom all that much, she reminded him too much of an older Petunia.

Luna wasn't sure if she wanted to go back to Hogwarts if so few of her friends were going to be there, she didn't like being on her own and Ravenclaw would be particularly horrid to her now that Harry was no longer there to offer her shelter. As such, she was contemplating joining Hermione in Beauxbatons, her French was passable though she was more comfortable with Swedish.

Hidden away up in the Tower of Harry's room which he had turned into a hide away library for them all, Harry shared out the Diaries that he received for Christmas so that they could keep in contact even at the different schools.

(.)

A week after receiving their confirmation letters of acceptance into Ispwich Boys' Academy the Wizengmot gathered and a new Law was passed that made Lily screech in fury, startling the four boys at the table, Dudley ended up knocking his bowl of cereal onto the floor while Charlus and James's hands immediately leapt to their wands and Harry inhaled his milk instead of drank it.

The red haired woman was seething, her hands gripping the paper as her Magic visibly sparked around her, all the glasses and tableware beginning to rattle violently. It looked as though she were underwater with her hair floating like that, full of trapped energy. The paper in her hands tore under the vicious pressure of her fingers.

"Lily-flower?" James ventured cautiously, getting up from the table. Charlus quickly pushed his cutlery, plate and glass away from himself and took refuge under the table, odd and worrying behaviour for a fifteen year old who was better at Defence Against the Dark Arts than most Aurors. Dudley glanced at Harry before following his elder cousin's actions, the Ravenclaw deciding to follow suit – Charlus must have taken cover for a reason.

"That... that..." Lily Potter was practically inarticulate with rage, "that Lemon-drop addled, bureaucratic, demeaning, overbearing, senile, fossilized, manipulative _old __**GOAT!**_" she screamed, tearing the paper into confetti as every glass and plate in the room exploded with the force of her anger, James quickly following his children's examples and taking cover under _Protego_.

Charlus winced, "She's really hacked off," he noted, rather needlessly in Harry's opinion.

Dudley gave him a wide eyed look of disbelief, "No _duh_, Captain Obvious!" he squawked.

"Lily-flower? What's wrong? What's Dumbledore done this time?" James asked, lowering his shield once he had established that there were no more glasses or dishes for his wife to explode, even her hair had calmed down, lying flat, if a little ruffled.

She was grinding her teeth and fisting and unfisting her hands, "He's put a new Law through the Wizengmot, all students who _start_ a Magic School cannot transfer, cannot leave and must _finish_ their education at the same establishment they started unless expelled or told otherwise by the Headmaster." Which meant that their enrolment in Ipswich Boys' Academy was now illegal. No wonder she was upset.

Charlus lunged for the backdoor when the glass and porceline shards on the floor began to rattle, "Dad's gunna blow!" he yelped, pulling both Dudley and Harry out after him. They barely made it out into the garden when they hard the unmistakeable sound of an explosion – not the shattering of the shards, but an actual roar of fire and concussive energy. The three of them were blown off their feet, landing roughly on their fronts on the grass, feeling heat licking at their backs.

Rolling over, Harry stared with wide eyes at the charred doorframe to the kitchen and then back to his brother, Charlus grimaced, patting Dudley on the head as the larger teenager trembled and clutched at him, paperwhite and terrified at the overt display of destructive magic.

"Da's usually pretty good about his Magic, its only when he gets really, really, _really_ angry does he kinda... explode. Literally. Um, we're probably not going to have anything to eat or drink out of until they go shopping. Ma could've fixed the broken stuff but... Dad's kind of melted it all together now so its impossible," he explained uncomfortably under his little brother's wide eyes and his cousin's terrified whimpering.

Harry wasn't sure he wanted to explode if he got angry.

(.)

Supposedly there was going to be some kind of World Cup event in the Summer, Charlus was desperate to attend, he claimed that as a Chaser for Gryffindor and its future Captain he needed to witness and take notes about how Ireland's Chasers – widely reputed to be the best in the business – functioned and played so he could better amend his performance in the air and coordinate with his fellow Chasers to ensure the Quidditch House Cup remained in Professor McGonagall's office, nice and shiny and far away from Severus Snape.

Lily had frowned at the last point but Harry could tell straight away that it immediately sold James to the idea.

Half a day later, James had secured tickets for the whole family to attend the Cup, even Dudley who despite being a little freaked out and skittish after the Accidental Magic displays from the two adults a month and a half ago was curious enough to want to go and witness it. James had to petition especially for his involvement and received a medallion which would cancel out the Muggle repelling charms around the Stadium so that Dudley could watch with them in the Top Box.

Harry honestly had no idea why he was joining them, he had no interest in Quidditch.

(.)

As a Birthday present, both Harry and Charlus were allowed to invite two of their friends to join them at the World Cup. As the Weasley family already had tickets, Charlus decided to invite two of his friends from foreign countries, Iliana Ramero from Spain and Masaomi Ishii from Japan, both of which were heavy Quidditch fans in comparison to Charlus's other friends.

Harry however was in a bit of a pickle, none of his friends he knew of would be interested, at least he didn't think they would be. A quick check of his Diary Communicator informed him that Luna and her father already had tickets, Hermione was in France with her parents talking to Madam Maxime her old headmistress to explain the issue with her enrolement and the new Laws and Meg was visiting family. Which left Neville, who wanted to go but his Grandmother wasn't keen on letting him anywhere out of her sight.

He still asked and, as luck would have it, she actually _agreed_.

(.)

Camping was not something Dudley enjoyed, Harry didn't mind it and Charlus actually seemed to enjoy it, he and James apparently used to do it often when they were in Canada and China. Either way, it wasn't something that Harry had been expecting, the tents that is.

The Irish supporters seemed to have nothing but clover leaves on them, primarily three and four-leafed though there was one individual who had managed to cultivate a cluster of seven leafed plants right at the front of his tent flap, people had to jump over them or risk a nasty cursing. And the Bulgarian supporters seemed to have forgotten there was more than one person on their team, as far as the eye could see their tents were draped with the same scowling and uncomfortable looking teenager with heavy black eyebrows and a rather hawkish appearance. Harry would have bet money on him being the Bulgarian Team's Seeker – even without Charlus excitedly explaining the significance to Dudley who just didn't understand why everyone seemed to be fangirling over an '_fugly emo_'.

Someone even had a miniature palace with live albino peacocks tethered outside.

Charlus immediately broke into guffaws at the sight of it, managing to wheeze out that only Lucius Malfoy owned albino peacocks and would be pompous enough to actually bring them to the cup. Harry glanced at them and decided the man must have just been very proud of the birds, they were very beautiful and if they did nothing but wonder around the grounds of the Malfoy Estate then he must rarely get to show them off to anyone with the rumours of his Death Eater roots.

They spotted a lot of their Classmates while retrieving water for their little campsite, him, Dudley, Charlus and Neville whom had flooed over that morning and caught the Portkey with them. They even ended up queueing at the pump right behind Ron and Charlie Weasley.

(.)

Harry wasn't sure what was more disturbing.

His brother in full-on fanboy mode, staring slack jawed at the bloody and broken nosed Viktor Krum, a pale pink flush of excitement beginning to flood his face.

Or the fact his father was doing exactly the same thing.

(.)

The Tent was silent, everyone sat around the scrubbed wooden table with mugs of hot chocolate slowly growing cold in front of them, Dudley had finally stopped shaking and the slash on Harry's arm had stopped bleeding, Neville was still white faced while Charlus was scowling discriminatingly, eyeing his wand which was on the table in front of him like Ron Weasley would a baby acromantula.

Death Eaters had decided to start a minor riot during the after Game celebrations, the Muggle family who owned the field had been levitated and terrified for the amusement of the masked and hooded wizards below. James and Lily had immediately jumped into action along with all the Ministry Wizards and several other able bodied individuals willing to fight. All the while, Charlus ushered the younger teenagers into the Forest, determined to get Dudley and Harry out of the line of fire as one was a Muggle and the other was his kid brother. Neville clung to Harry the whole time until they ran into Draco Malfoy who seemed to be watching the proceedings with great amusement and calm acknowledgement.

That soon turned into a bloody nose once Neville cottoned onto the fact that it was most likely his mother and father out there, his mother who was the sister of the vile bitch who tortured his parents. Draco had been half expecting violence from Charlus and Harry, but having Neville suddenly land a haymaker on his nose shocked, startled and upset him more than anything else.

He didn't cry, not in front of them, but they could see it was a very near thing as he scampered off, trying to stem the bleeding. Not even fifty feet away from them he began wailing.

"Feel better?" Dudley had asked the timid Gryffindor with a raised eyebrow, he was afterall the most experienced when it came to the victim of a bully suddenly growing a pair of balls and getting their own back.

Neville looked at him for a moment before smiling, "Much."

Then they discovered Charlus was missing his Wand. A strange voice incanted the Dark Mark above them. The Ministry came swarming in. Barty Crouch accusing them of casting it, spittle flying from his mouth, eyes bulging madly. James threatening to curse the man if he didn't get ahold of himself. Amos Diggory finding Winky the House Elf...

Mr Crouch banishing her.

"Why do House Elves bind themselves to a Wizarding Family?" Harry asked, looking at his mother.

She sighed and looked at James who shook his head, "They like it I suppose. No one knows how or when it began, just that the House Elves don't want it to stop."

"That's bullshit," Charlus grunted, glowering at his father, "What about Dobby? If he had even half an opportunity he would seize his freedom in a heartbeat." Dobby the House Elf who had tried to '_save_' Charlus by nearly killing him for the entirety of Harry's second year, tampering with Bludgers, putting poison in his food, trying to get him expelled during the Summer for doing magic outside of school – not knowing that Charlus had a special waver to allow him to be trained by his father.

Harry wondered if Hermione knew.

(.)

The morning before they had to get onto the Hogwarts Express was tense and unhappy.

Dudley watched as both Lily and James stomped around with miniature thunderclouds over their heads as they helped Charlus get ready – Harry having been prepared the night before and was now padding through the house like a silent ghost, or a House Elf. The blond Dursley winced slightly as he remembered the book he found on House Elves, how it compared a lot to Harry and how he was treated with his parents, minus the beatings and self inflicted punishments that most Elves had to do.

He wondered if his mother knew what House Elves were.

At least there was a little bit of amusement when they heard about '_rocketing dust bins_' at Mad Eye Moody's, it made both Lily and James smile while Charlus cackled and asked which poor cat had to be taken to the vet for shell shock this time.

(.)

The Triwizard Tournament?

Harry frowned at the Ravenclaw Table, sat beside an equally frowning Luna. This sounded fishy, true it was a good way of bringing Hogwarts' reputation out of the mud by having such an international event designed to foster good relations between the top three schools (The only three _mainstream_ schools in anycase). Not to mention the good press it would garner if a Hogwarts Student won, add to that, the Tasks were being downplayed to a much greater degree to prevent any loss of life.

Still, to Harry this sounded fishy, like it was an attempt by Dumbledore to manipulate the parents into thinking '_See? My law was a good thing, you didn't want your child to miss this incredible event, did you?_'. And it would work, with most of the parents and guardians, but those who have more than two braincells to rub together would be even more annoyed by the extra threat the tournament presented.

Still, at least Hermione was excited about the participation of Beauxbatons, she had made a few friends that she had been forced to say goodbye to when the Law was put into affect.

(.)

Moody was certifiably insane. A paranoid PTS sufferer who certainly shouldn't be around children. Especially if he was capable of spells like the Unforgivables – besides, wasn't Moody famous for having _never_ had to cast those spells to bring in his Death Eaters? Still, he supposed someone with the kind of psychosis's that Moody had, showing children spells to completely control, torture and murder people would be within the realm of practicality.

The man had more issues than Harry, and he was fairly sure he had more than Reader's Digest.

(.)

Charlus had taken to sulking in the Ravenclaw Commonroom with Harry due to the lack of Quidditch and his OWLs, which he wasn't enjoying the homework load for. Often times, Harry ended up helping him instead of the otherway around, which seemed to put the Gryffindor into a funny mood – alternatively proud, bewildered and a little inferior. Afterall, he was the big brother, he should be the one helping Harry, not the other way around.

(.)

Moody was casting the Unforgivables on them today.

He watched his classmates to various tricks while under Imperio, Meg and one of the other Puffs – Susan Bones – managed to give the curse a bit of a fight but in the end, Meg still ended up dancing, though you could see her fighting it and attempting to twist her body to kick at their teacher when she was near enough. It seemed to please Moody when he saw it. And Susan ended up singing a Muggle rock song by Chris Rhea.

When it came time for Harry, he didn't even notice the Imperio. He just stood there, staring at Moody who frowned and cast it again, and again, and again before grinning, his scars twisting grotesquely. Harry frowned, that wasn't a smile of pleasure, it was of hatred, he was very familiar with those. Was he jealous that Imperio didn't affect him?

Regardless of why their new Defence Teacher hated him, Harry still left the lesson with a sinking feeling of foreboding in the pit of his stomach.

(.)

He didn't know how and he didn't know why, but for some reason, he was the one who ended up with the partial Veela next to him, Fleur Delacour. He was currently the recipient of many a dark glare from the male populace and many a considering and threatening eyeballing from the female portion. Harry was more interested in his dinner and paid them no mind, calmly ignoring the Allure the girl beside him was excluding – turning every straight man and lesbian/bi woman within fifty feet into drooling simpletons.

Harry rolled his eyes as Roger Davis attempted to brag about having beaten Viktor Krum in a Quidditch match – the Bulgarian in question scowling surlily from the Slytherin table where he was sandwiched between Draco Malfoy and Marcus Flint. He didn't look amused. But Harry figured that was just his default expression and carried on eating – oblivious to the expression on Fleur's face as Luna dreamily told her she had a bad case of the Vinklesnicht, a small glitter shaped moon creature that turned those of a certain sexual persuasion into simpering morons and violently repelled those of the opposite persuasion and prompted them into petty hatred and violence. Very dangerous, she would have to wash her hair in vinegar and milk to get rid of them.

(.)

"_Harry Potter_."

Green eyes blinked in bewilderment.

A fourth Champion and somehow... _HE_ had been the one chosen? Shouldn't it have been Charlus, the Boy Who Lived? The one with the Prophesy, the whole Dark Lord and important Destiny, the Golden Child, the _Gryffindor_?

The hall was silent as Harry refused to move, just staring down at Dumbledore who was staring up at him, it was quite clear to everyone that the youngest of the Potters was very surprised as it actually showed on his face for once. Mutterings broke out as the Ravenclaw didn't move and it took a hard shove from Roger Davis, almost ending him face first into Luna's shoulder, before he would move.

Against Harry's will, he moved forward, looking like a deer in the headlights as he stared at Dumbledore who silently pointed him into the annex room where the rest of the Champions were waiting. He looked at Charlus for guidance. The Gryffindor looked horrified and worried, a little panicked, he was halfway out of his seat with the Weasley Twins gripping his arms to stop him from rushing up to his little brother. Harry blinked at him and Charlus glanced to Dumbledore and then back to the Ravenclaw before swallowing hard and nodding shakily.

Harry went into the annex and the Weasley Twins released their Housemate.

(.)

Rita Skeeter wasn't sure how to speak to the youngest of the Potter children, she tried everything, she asked questions, she verbally attacked him, accused him of outright lies and attempted to honeycoat her words, coax him into speaking to her. He just sat there, stared at her in silence, his eyes flat and unyielding, sending a shiver of fear and cold sweat down her spine.

Her Quick Quotes Quill absolutely refused to write anything beyond the boy's silence and it trembled everytime he looked at it in what she could assume was curiosity, or fury. She didn't know.

Either way, she didn't have her interview so she didn't know how to spin her article, as a sweetheart as a glory hound as an up and coming young man finally breaking out of his brother's shadow, she honestly had no idea.

So for once, her article was free of bias, free of gossip and free of slander.

(.)

When the First Task rolled around, stood in the tent at the side of the Stadium, Harry could smell sulphur and musk and rancid meat amongst other more reptilian scents and he could therefore only assume that the first Task had something to do with Dragons as Wyverns didn't breathe fire and therefore didn't smell of Sulphur and breeding Basilisks was a BIG crime and ergo no one would be doing it for a tournament. He was sure there were many other Reptilian Magical Creatures, but Dragons were the meanest and the most common so he could only assume they would be it.

He was proven right when he pulled a Hungarian Horntail from the velvet sack which once held Fleur's Swedish Shortsnout, Cedric's Welsh Green and Viktor's Chinese Fireball – he would have preferred the Fireball to be honest, it was a beautiful creature.

Now. How to get past a dragon?

(.)

Fleur put her's to Sleep, Cedric used a distraction, Viktor was aggressive... Harry was sneaky.

The Horntail had very small nostrils and primarily breathed fire through her mouth, she had small ears so Harry could accurately conclude that she focused primarily on sound and possibly temperature sensitivity through the spines lining her face. The latter he wasn't sure about but he was still going ahead with the fledgling plan he hatched while awaiting his turn in the Tent.

When he had been younger, he had been fascinated by Science, it made sense, he could understand it on a level he didn't understand most other things. It was why he was so curious about magic, why he gathered so much information and spent almost all of his spare time just picking it apart to figure out how it ticked while the other Ravenclaws competed against each other to prove themselves the brainiest and the best and the most likely to join the Department of Mysteries – the so called Holy Grail of the Ministry of Magic for all bookworms.

It had been weather systems that made him the most curious.

So.

In the hot, dry atmosphere of the Dragon enclosure... Harry pointed his wand into the air and uttered the strongest Water Charm he knew, sending a jet of liquid into the air like a Muggle Fire hose, cooling the air and adding moisture to it. Mother Dragon wasn't pleased as she looked to the sky which she knew should have been dry, that moment of inattention cost her and suddenly the crowd gasped and began to clamour as with a flick of his wand, Harry Potter vanished entirely without even a distortion that the Disillusionment Charm would have offered.

By changing the temperature and the moisture content of the air around him in such bright and dry conditions, Harry ended up creating what was more commonly known as a Mirage by refracting light on the cooled water particles around him, bending the light and making it look as if he wasn't there as well as hiding his body temperature from the possibly temperature sensitive spines the Mother Dragon may have had.

Five minutes later and some hasty extra charms, Harry gathered up his Egg and ducked out from under the Mother and cancelled his Mirage, to show the Judges he had succeeded.

(.)

Dumbledore awarded him a 10, Madam Maxime a 9, Bagman another 10 while Karkaroff of the Durmstrang institute sneeringly awarded him a 2 – which immediately caused massive outrage amidst everyone, even his own Champion.

(.)

He was glad he allowed himself to be talked into opening the Golden Egg in the Ravenclaw Commonroom, Harry didn't think he would have been able to figure out what language was being spoken inside of it without Marietta Edgecomb's help – evidentially she recognised it as Mermish, all he had to do was listen to it underwater for it to become understandable.

Which then gave him his next problem.

What was most precious to him?

(.)

A Ball? As in dancing? As in _touching someone?_

Flickwick's face was apologetic as he explained the situation to him but there was nothing Harry could do to duck out of it as the fourth Champion, he _had_ to open the Ball with the other Champions otherwise the rest of the school could not join in under grounds of civility and some stuffy etiquette laws some Pureblood came up with several centuries prior.

How utterly annoying.

Still, Harry found more than a little amusement in watching his brother have to fend women off from all angles, one of which being a Seventh Year Slytherin who looked like she would have snapped him in half if he said no – he still did and then proceeded to run like hell when she went to pull her wand to '_convince_' him.

Neville asked Luna to attend with him, Hermione had already been bagged and Meg had marched over and told him to wear something white and trimmed in pale green when he came to pick her up. Because it was blatantly a no brainer that he was going to take one of his Best Friend's and he wouldn't allow someone he didn't trust to lay their hands on him.

(.)

It was an enjoyable evening. He danced, he drank, he smiled, he almost laughed.

He even allowed himself to be swept off to dance with his brother, Hermione, Neville, Luna and Viktor Krum – Hermione's partner for the evening, much to Ron Weasley's disgust. With the exception of Luna, everyone was taller than him, which became a source of great amusement for his friends and then later for Draco Malfoy who quickly hightailed it when Viktor looked at him as though he were some kind of partially digested insect still gooey and twitching under his shoe.

(.)

How to survive in the lake for an hour...

Bubble Head Charm, Transfiguration, Gillyweed, Animagus form, Muggle scooba gear...

Harry gnawed on his thumbnail as he thought. It would all depend on what he was supposed to do, he knew he had to retrieve something but the thing was, he didn't really value any of his possessions overly much, so they weren't anything he would consider precious. So with that ruled out... it left people.

He twitched at the sick swooping sensation in his stomach. They wouldn't really put someone in a lake, underwater, for a whole hour just to – well they used dragons in the First Task, why is he surprised they would use live hostages?

Whether they do or they don't, its best to plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Scooba Gear wouldn't work in Hogwarts, he didn't have an Animagus form and he doubted it would be aquatic anyway, he wasn't good enough at Transfiguration to do anything to himself without risk of botching it up, the Bubble Head Charm would be good but the Gilly Weed would give him webbed hands and feet – better for propulsion and therefore speed, plus, he wouldn't feel the cold of the lake water. Plus, Bubble Head Charms made it seem like you were looking through a fish bowl, both inside and out, it wasn't very good for visibility.

Decision made, he went to go and bribe Professor Snape to part with some of his Gillyweed.

(.)

The sight of Charlus, waxy, pale, corpse-like in the murky waters of Hogwarts' Lake, surrounded by hostile looking Merfolk, unresponsive and unable to defend himself made Harry's blood positively run cold. He floundered in distress because Hermione was there, right beside him, looking just as waxy and corpse-like.

He knew his brother was supposed to be his Precious thing that was stolen away, but Hermione was his bestfriend, one of them. He looked at the other two hostages, Cho Chang – Cedric's girlfriend, and a little blonde girl who had to be Fleur's younger sister or some kind of relative. Which meant Hermione had to have been Viktor's hostage, he had taken her to the Yule Ball and now she was here? His feelings must have been fairly serious.

Harry grit his teeth and roughly hacked at Charlus's weed bindings and began to power himself and his brother back to the surface.

If Krum didn't rescue Hermione then Harry was going to _kill_ him.

(.)

Harry was in the lead pointwise for the Tournament, the highest score in the last century at that.

There had been a little drama involving Rita Skeeter and her articles about him and his brother and his past, abuse at the Dursleys, _Lockhart_, his apparent immunity to Imperio along with a few other inconsequential things. What confused him was how she figured that he was in an incestuous relationship with his older brother, where the hell did that come from and _why_ would she think that?

Sufficed to say, two days after the article was written the Daily Prophet issued a formal apology and retraction of Rita's commentary after Lily Potter stalked into their head office and had a quiet little chat with the Editor in Chief.

(.)

The day before the Third Task, he was pleasantly surprised to find his mother and father in the Entrance Hall, chatting to his brother, Dudley hidden between the two of them and looking around in a mixture of paranoia and awe.

"Surprise!" James called cheerfully, pulling him into a one armed hug, Harry found no need to tense, he knew James wouldn't hurt him on purpose. He spent a pleasant day with his family, wondering around Hogwarts, listening to them tell stories, ask what happened to such and such a portrait, where did the scorch marks here come from, this suit of armour wasn't here before it was elsewhere, the different teachers, etcetera, etcetera.

And then came time for the Third Task.

(.)

It was very suspicious that he had gone so far without a sign of anyone or anything.

Harry frowned as he turned a corner and then froze, his eyes widening and his blood running cold as the scent of lavender and chamomile struck him like an anvil, a certain blond haired, white toothed wizard in robes of baby blue stood grinning at him in the middle of the Maze. Gilderoy Lockhart.

Who was in jail.

"_Ridikulus!_" the boy snarled with uncharacteristic vehemence as he jabbed his Wand forward, watching as the man started screaming as blood spread from the groin area of his robes. A vicious smirk curled on Harry's lips at the thought of castrating the man in real life.

Unbeknownst to the fourteen year old, Mad Eye Moody would have watched that confrontation and actually winced in sympathetic pain for the Boggart that unknowingly prompted the green eyed boy's anger. And fear.

(.)

He didn't like Riddles, but it didn't mean that they weren't easy.

"Spider."

The Sphinx smiled and stepped aside, Harry paused as he was passing her before stripping out of his cloak and handing it over to the bewildered looking lion-woman. "You're from a warm country, you must be cold," he stated by means of explanation before hurrying on. Add to that, she was naked, it felt rude and a little wrong to just leave her in that kind of state with all the Wizards running around.

(.)

The Acromantula almost caught him as he made his way to the Cup in the middle of the Maze, but unlike the eight-legged creature, Harry was very much used to running away from things and managed to outpace the creature long enough to brush his fingers on the silver object – the immediate hook in navel jerk he associated with a Portkey was very welcome as he could have sworn he felt the brush of a hairy leg on his ankle.

However, instead of the lawns of Hogwarts and the smiling faces of his family greeting him, he ended up in a graveyard. A dim and dark graveyard and the cup at his feet.

Frowning, he picked it up again and felt the Portkey jerk him away – his ears catching a scream of impotent fury as he was swept away.

Landing outside of the maze, Harry figured it must have been a malfunction and carefully set the cup down again before he ended up getting yanked somewhere else by accident – like the Dragon reserve in Romania.

(.)

Half way into the after party, Mad Eye Moody tried to lead him away from everyone else for a quiet chat about the possibility of a referrence should he ever desire to join the Auror division. Harry Stunned him in the middle of the Corridor before conviscating his Wand and using a full Body Bind on him.

During his many jaunts into the library to study for the upcoming tasks, he had stumbled across the Polyjuice Potion, he remembered Hermione and Neville talking about how someone had stolen potion ingredients from Snape. When getting Gillyweed from the man he found out which ones that had been taken, ingredients that were only put together in one potion – the Polyjuice. And as with Hogwarts tradition, Harry was betting money on his Defence Teacher trying to kill him or his brother, again.

Eventually, when his father came to find him, he stumbled across Harry crouched in the Charm's corridor watching as Mad Eye Moody seemed to... _melt_ and become a Death Eater who should have been dead.

Barty Crouch Jr.

(.)

All the while, unbeknownst to everyone, Tom Riddle, also known as Voldemort, raged at the failure of his plan, torturing Peter Pettigrew – his only follower within striking distance. Completely oblivious to the Fiend Fyre that had been cast in the Downstairs dining room where the influential Mr Riddle, the fussy Mrs Riddle and their beloved son Tom Riddle had been murdered by their own unknown Grandson.

By the time the two did realise the house was burning down around their ears, it was too late to prevent it.

Wormtail, too weakened and damaged by the repeated bouts of Cruciatus, Nagini who could not escape with the stairs and hallway already consumed in cursed flame and Voldemort, his weak and infantile body born of black magic and blood sacrifice unable to move. They all burned. Flesh peeling and charring, turning to ash under the intense heat of flame.

(.)

Outside, in the Graveyard, looking up at the old manor house, a dark haired teenager in a heavy brown cloak watched it burn with a satisfied smirk curled onto his lips.

"Good riddens to bad trash," he murmured, teal coloured eyes glowing red briefly in the shadow of his hood before, **CRACK**, he was gone.

Leaving nothing but mist to curl lovingly over leaf mould.

(.)

**And finished. **

**Now, I'll tell you all again, when I posted a second chapter to this, it meant I would be continuing it, completely. This will only be, what... seven, eight chapters at the most. It'll be done.**

**As for why it takes so long... to be perfectly honest, while I'm aware that this caters to a larger audience, I don't like it. I barely put effort into writing it, I don't plan it at all, I just write and write and write, try to get the emotions, try to get into Harry's head and just have him be the catalyst to events around him. And yet for something with only three – now four chapters that I wrote during the predawn hours for shits and giggles to be more popular than something I have spent weeks working on, planning the plot, doing research, brain storming scene ideas, subplots, occasionally even drawing concept art. Its just disheartening. **

**I know full well that my other stuff isn't everyone's cup of tea, I mean, c'mon, I'm a slash writer primarily and that makes a lot of people uncomfortable so I'm losing a large audience with that alone. I'm not asking for more readers/reviews on my other stuff, I'm just explaining myself and my feelings on why I have such a lack of enthusiasm for this. Plus, when something's really popular... I kind of get intimidated, I get worried that what I've written isn't good enough and it won't entertain people properly. **

**Oh and FYI, if you're concerned. There won't be any slash in this. No pairings at all in all honesty. Save pre-established marriages.**


End file.
